Teenage Angst
by Flamerist
Summary: Gaara is the new kid at Konoha High. He has to cope with an abusive father and other problems. Warning: Contains yaoi, character death, violence and rape. It's still happy though! Pairings NejiGaa, SasuNaru and more.
1. The New Kid

Chapter one: The new kid

"Are you sure you're going to be okay?" Kankuro asked nervously from the passenger seat of the dingy old BMW he was driving. "Because the headmistress said that you could wait until after spring break to-",

"No way!" Temari cut across him severely. "Gaara hasn't spoken a word to anyone besides us since we left Suna. He needs to socialize". Kankuro continued to grumble all the way to the school where Gaara climbed out of the back seat and smoothed the creases out of his school shirt. "I'll be fine", he reassured Kankuro as he started to walk into the school.

Gaara found the school's main office quickly and waited for the attention of the receptionist. She noticed him standing there and gave him a dirty look. "Can I help you?" She asked as if it was the last thing she wanted to do.

"Yes. I'm Gaara Sabaku. I enrolled here last week...?" Gaara replied uncertainly.

"And?" The woman replied nastily.

"I was told to come to the main office and-" The woman glared at him while he spoke and cut across him irritatingly.

"Fine!" The woman snapped "Fill out these forms while I get a guide for you". She handed him a clipboard and walked outside to grab the nearest senior she could find. Gaara filled out the forms as required and didn't like the questions one bit. They were all something like; "What is your greatest aspiration in life?" and "What is your greatest fear?". He despised psychological analysis.

When he was done, he looked up to find the prettiest boy standing in front of him, smiling kindly. "Hello", he said "I'm Haku. And you are?"

"I'm Gaara", Gaara replied, shaking the proffered hand.

"Well hello, Gaara. I'm going to be your guide until you feel you've settled in well enough. Come on. You're first class is Calculus, great! That's the one my friend, Sasuke is in. Lets go get you acquainted". Gaara nodded and Haku led the way through several courtyards and over to a boy with raven hair and a smirk on his face.

"Sasuke, this is Gaara. He's new here and is in your calculus class. I was hoping that you could look after him until lunch? His timetable is nearly the same as yours except he'll be in German while you do Japanese. Do you know anyone that takes German?" Haku said all this rather smoothly, leaving no room for argument.

"Naruto does German", Sasuke replied quietly, a smile spreading over his face. His voice was soft and dark and strangely captivating. Sasuke snapped out of his reverie and led the way to calculus. Once they sat down at the back of the class, a girl with pink hair came rushing up. "Sasuke!" she squealed shrilly. "How are you?"

"I'm the same as I was on Friday, Sakura. This is Gaara".

"Hi!" she said absently without even looking at him, her eyes still locked on Sasuke. "How nice and noble and generous of you to help the new kid!" she gushed.

"Can you please stop being so...so..."

"Sycophantic?" Gaara provided helpfully.

"Exactly!" Sasuke agreed happily. Sakura turned on Gaara and angrily exclaimed

"Just because you're jealous of the love we share!"

"What love?" Sasuke asked incredulously. Sakura promptly ran out of the room crying leaving a disgusted Sasuke and a chuckling Gaara in her wake. The teacher, a man named Jaraiya, walked into the class at that moment and told them to sit down and began the lesson which consisted mainly of him sitting at his desk writing and giggling while the students just talked amongst themselves. Gaara found that he quite liked Sasuke and realised quickly that he was very much a desired person. He mainly complained about Sakura and his fan club. After Calculus they had Biology and after that they had Language. Gaara met up with Naruto on the way to class.

"Um excuse me", Gaara said to Naruto "but are you Naruto? Because I'm new here and Sasuke told me that you would help me in German...? I'm Gaara by the way". Naruto stared at him for a few moments then gave him a huge smile, grabbed his hand and yelled

"You can sit next to me! I'm so great in this class! Come on! Let's get seats at the back!" Naruto led Gaara to the back of the room and proceeded to loudly tell him about the class and its teacher, Gai. He seemed to exclaim everything he said loudly so Gaara was surprised when the teacher didn't really seem to care all that much but just continued on about how the power of youth will allow you to become bilingual.

The bell rang to signal break and Naruto dragged Gaara off to go find Sasuke. They located him in one of the courtyards fending off a desperate Sakura. When he caught sight of them, he pushed Sakura to the side and hurried to stand behind Naruto, clinging to his shoulders, shuddering. Gaara laughed again and Sakura shot him a dirty look before glaring at Naruto.

"Get your filthy paws off my Sasuke!" she then ran at them and Gaara nearly fell over laughing watching Sakura chase them all around the courtyard.

The bell signalling the next period rang and they all hurried off to get changed for gym. Their teacher was a rather terrifying woman named Anko and she made them run 20 laps as a warm up exercise. Gym continued until lunch upon which Naruto, Sasuke and Gaara went to their usual eating place.

When they arrived, Haku was waiting for them and seemed desperate to find out how Gaara's day was going. Gaara liked Haku with his deep yet feminine voice and the way he had altered the school uniform so completely that it actually looked good. He had dyed the white shirt a dark reddish purple colour and somehow transformed it into a poet shirt. He had made the pants somewhat darker and more fitting. The tie had been turned into a headband and was now red and black rather than the original blue and green. "Haku, how come no one hassles you about your uniform?" Gaara asked curiously, wanting to know if he could change his to fit his style.

"Well my adoptive brother can be a little bit intimidating and if I tell him about my problems, he tries to fix them. He's a little over-protective but that's okay. So, have you seen any guys you like yet?" Haku replied, catching Gaara off-guard.

"How did you know?" Gaara asked miserably, afraid he might lose his new friends now that they knew his deep dark secret.

"Gay-dar", replied Haku with a smile "and because of the way you appraise everyone. I can see in your eyes where your attraction lies".

"Do you know of any other gay people around here?" Gaara was surprised that Haku was acting as if this was a normal occurrence.

"Well there's Sasuke, Naruto, Neji and I. And maybe a couple of other people", Haku responded calmly. Gaara was shocked. Back in Suna, he only knew one other openly gay person and that person had been Gaara's best friend.

"So, Gaara, do you want to hang out with us after school?" Sasuke asked smirking slightly.

"Sure. I'll just have to let one of my siblings know", he sent a txt to Temari and one to Kankuro just to be safe.

"Do you live with them? What's it like? Are they nice? Would they like to meet me? Could we come and visit sometime? How many do you have? What are their names? Do they like you? Do you like them? Would they-? Ow!" Sasuke hit Naruto over the head, stopping the barrage of questions that Gaara's mind was finally beginning to register were directed at him.

"Shut up, dobe. Stop pestering him!" Sasuke irritably commanded Naruto.

"Don't be such a teme, teme!" Naruto yelled back, rubbing his head where Sasuke had hit him.

"Yes I live with them, it's pretty good, they're usually really nice especially my brother, I'm sure they'd be delighted to meet you, I'm sure you could visit after we've settled in, I have two; a brother and a sister, my brother's called Kankuro and my sister's called Temari, I think they like me and I like them very much. Now what was your last question going to be?"

Everyone was frozen in shock at how Gaara had remembered all those questions and answered them all in one breath. Everyone except Naruto who promptly replied.

"Would they like me? See, teme?" He said turning back to Sasuke. "He didn't mind me asking all those questions!"

"Whatever", replied Sasuke, rolling his eyes.

"I'm sure they'd like you, if you stopped yelling just a little bit", Gaara answered with a smile. They spent the rest of the lunch period talking and getting to know one another before going to the assembly where the headmistress, Tsunade, a woman with ridiculously large breasts, rambled on about domestic violence before releasing them for 6th period. For the last period of the day Sasuke and Gaara had Performing Arts whilst Naruto had an appointment with the guidance councillor. Gaara and Sasuke were in a group with two other boys, Shikamaru and Kiba. They had to do several exercises before playing trust games. Gaara was particularly bad at these because he just didn't trust Sasuke to catch him.

"It's okay, Gaara. I won't let you fall!" Gaara was still nervous so Sasuke said that he could catch him instead. Gaara caught Sasuke and pushed him back upright. Then Gaara finally overcame his anxiety and just leaned backwards. While doing so, he caught sight of the most attractive boy he had ever seen. The boy had long dark brown hair and beautiful, captivating pale eyes. Gaara nearly did fall over backwards in a swoon and was glad that Sasuke was behind him. Gaara blushed and avoided looking at the boy with the pale eyes for the rest of the lesson.

After class, Gaara checked his phone and found messages from both Temari and Kankuro saying that he had to be home by 10pm. He smiled to himself as he read the other message from his best friend back in Suna, D'gani. It was a poem and had an emoticon pulling the finger at the end. Now that school was over the four friends decided to go back to Haku's house because only his brother would be there. They played Tekken Tag Tournament for a few hours until Haku's brother; Zabuza told them that dinner was ready. He had insisted on cooking and had made a chicken stir-fry.

Gaara understood why people found Zabuza intimidating. He was extremely tall with a very broad chest and spiky black hair. He had a deep husky voice and seemed to prefer to not wear a shirt. Not that the boys complained. (Hint hint )

After dinner Haku and Zabuza cleaned up while Sasuke and Naruto convinced a reluctant Gaara to play a game of poker. Surprising everyone, including himself, Gaara won. They played again with the same result. And again and again and again.

"It's because he doesn't have any eyebrows!" Naruto whined after losing for the fifth time in a row. The others just laughed. Gaara looked at his watch and realised that he had probably better get going.

"Sorry guys but I should probably get going now. I have to be home by 10", Gaara stated, standing up and stretching. "Thanks for the dinner, it was delicious". He smiled and nodded to Haku and Zabuza.

"It's quite alright", Zabuza replied with a grin "Anyone who can beat Haku at poker five times in a row deserves a free meal. It was nice meeting you, Gaara".

"You too, Zabuza". Gaara began walking to the door when he was caught up to by Sasuke and Naruto. They escorted Gaara to his street before walking home themselves. Gaara couldn't help but notice how close together they were as they continued alone. He smiled and walked over to his front door. As he let himself he was greeted with a drunken yell. His father was home.

"Where have you been, ya little faggot?" His father reached out and grabbed Gaara by the hair and hurled him against the wall. "Get to fucking bed ya little whore!" Gaara scrambled up the stairs to his room and got undressed. It was then that he remembered the boy with the pale, beautiful eyes.


	2. The boy with the pale eyes

A/N: So here's chapter two! Thank you to my reviewer and I hope you enjoy this chapter! Is it just me, or does my writing not flow all that well, especially at the beginning of chapters?

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other copyrighted material in the following story, on my honour, or may I be kidnapped, slowly tortured, cut into pieces while still alive, have my pieces cooked in a vat of oil and mailed to my family members. Yup.

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Chapter Two: The boy with the pale eyes.

Over the next week Gaara settled down into school surprisingly well. He had friends and was accepted for who he was. Haku, Sasuke, Naruto and Gaara alternated hanging out at Sasuke's and Haku's houses as Gaara's father was at home and Naruto lived by himself in a small apartment. Everyday, when Gaara got home, his father added a new bruise to his collection and was sure to crush his self-esteem as well. But despite all of that, he was the happiest he had ever been. On Friday though, he found another reason to live. When he had Performing Arts on Wednesday, Gaara had been surreptitiously spying on the brown haired boy with the beautiful eyes but lacked the courage to talk to him.

Now that it was Friday, Gaara decided that he would finally talk to him, that day in Performing Arts. The first two periods passed without incident but in the third, calculus, Sakura kissed Sasuke on the mouth before he threw her back with a horrified expression warping his attractive features. He then spluttered and coughed, desperate to get her taste out of his mouth. Gaara just laughed. Afterwards, during break, a furious Naruto chased Sakura around the courtyard, bent on revenge. This made Sasuke actually laugh, genuinely happy, a rare occurrence.

Next they had Performing Arts and had to change their groups to include people they didn't really know. Sasuke and Gaara stayed in the same group through special request. They were joined by a boy who introduced himself as Rock Lee and bared a startling resemblance to Gai-sensei. And, to Gaara's delighted, but contained, surprise, the boy with the pale eyes. He smiled at Gaara before naming himself. "Hi. My name is Neji Hyuuga. I don't believe we've met before. What's your name?" He asked with a kind smile on his face.

"I'm Gaara. Gaara Sabaku. It's nice to meet you, Neji", Gaara replied formally before listening to the teacher's instructions. That was as far as their interactions went for the double period as the teacher kept them busy with shape formation exercises.

When the bell signalling lunch went, Gaara went with Sasuke to their usual meeting place but before they could reach it, Gaara was stopped by a shout.

"Hey, Gaara! Wait up!" Gaara turned around to see Neji rushing towards him. At first Gaara was extremely pleased if a little surprised that Neji wanted to talk to him but then realised that Neji was holding his clear file folder. "You left this back in class", he said, handing the folder to Gaara. "Um...Do you want to hang out with me and my friends at lunch?"

"Uh..." Gaara looked to Sasuke who gave a slight nod before walking off to find Haku and Naruto. "Sure. Why not?"

"Great!" Neji grabbed Gaara's hand and led him over to a tree and introduced him to his other friends. "You already know Lee, this is Tenten and that's Deidara", he pointed out the boy from Performing Arts, a girl with dark hair tied in buns at the side of her head and a boy with a golden mop on his head.

"Hello. I'm Gaara, nice to meet you". Gaara shook their hands in turn and then was questioned by Neji about what music he liked, what he read, what subject he liked most, who he lived with, what part of town he lived in and more. At the same time he was finding out about Neji. The others in the group just seemed to ignore them, sensing that they wanted to be left alone. 6th period started shortly after Gaara realised that he really liked Neji and had agreed to go over to his place after school. When he met up with Sasuke and Naruto in the assembly hall before they proceeded on to English, he told them that he would be going over to Neji's house after school. Naruto made oooooh noises and Sasuke hit him round the back of his head.

After school, Gaara met up with Neji in the school parking lot where Neji beckoned him over to a dark blue mustang with black flames painted along the sides. Gaara climbed into the passenger's seat and admired the leather interior. Neji smiled at Gaara's response and couldn't wait to see the look on his face when they arrived at his house.

It took them ten minutes to drive up to the Hyuuga estate and the look on Gaara's face was priceless. He stared around in amazement at the 5 acre property and huge mansion. This guy had more money than Sasuke. "Impressed?" Neji smiled teasingly at him.

"Not really. I mean you only have a giant mansion and an enormous property and an expensive custom designed car. What's there to be impressed by?" Neji smiled at Gaara's look of incredulity. It made him look really cute.

"And here is the foyer in all its glory!" Neji snorted as they walked through the front door into a magnificent entrance hall with polished white marble floors and elegant snowy pillars. Directly in front of Gaara was a great marble staircase with a mahogany banister carved in the shape of a great vine with flowers blossoming at regular intervals al the way up to the top level.

"Okay, now I'm impressed!" Gaara was staring around with his mouth wide open. Neji came and carefully closed it with one hand smiling at the smaller boy and leading him up the staircase by the hand. They stopped in front of a large wooden door with an ornate glass handle. Neji produced a key and unlocked the door leading to his private apartments. Behind this door was a large bedroom, a kitchen, a bathroom, a lounge, a laundry and an indoor spa-pool.

"And you live in here by yourself?" Gaara was amazed. Neji's private quarters were nearly the size of Gaara's entire house.

"Well my uncle lives on the other side of the building and my cousin, Hinata, lives just down the hall. But we pretty much keep to ourselves. So, do you want to watch T.V or something?" Neji moved into his bedroom and selected some clothes to change into before heading into the bathroom to get changed.

"I guess watching T.V could be fun. Uh where is it?" Gaara looked around the lounge and the bedroom but couldn't see a set in either.

"Oh sorry!" Neji emerged clad only in his boxers and found a remote under his bed, pressed a button and smiled sheepishly at Gaara. A flat-screen TV appeared from behind a panel in the wall as well as a DVD player, a PS2, an X-Box 360 and a stereo. Gaara hardly noticed because he was staring at the Hyuuga before him and wishing he could get rid of those pesky boxers. Neji noticed where Gaara's gaze was and blushed. "I'll just go finish getting changed". He quickly rushed out of the room.

"Is there anything in particular you feel like watching?" Gaara sat on Neji's king sized bed and began flicking through the several hundred channels available to him.

"It depends on what's on, I feel like watching something informative and relaxing, whimsical yet relevant, scary but soothing and melancholy and upbeat", Neji replied with a small, but cute frown.

"So nothing too specific then", Gaara joked back as Neji came and sat beside him on the bed and pulled Gaara and himself backwards so their backs were against the pillows. Gaara was blushing which only made Neji want him to be even closer. They flicked over to one of the many music channels and watched the video for Rapture by the band Hurt and Gaara snuggled a little closer to Neji. They stayed like this for a few hours, just breathing in each others scent and watching music videos. At around 7:00pm, the boys were feeling rather hungry and so went into Neji's private kitchen to desperately search for some sort of convenience food. They found some frozen pizzas in the back of the freezer and so ate an unhealthy, but easily prepared, meal before returning to their cosy positions on the bed. Gaara laid his head on Neji's chest as they started flicking channels again. Gaara started to yawn and slowly began to drift off to sleep.

Gaara woke up to find the T.V off but other than that he was in the same position as before. The window revealed the lateness of the hour (A/N: Just a bit of weirdness for you! .) Gaara looked at his watch for confirmation. He groaned when he saw that it was after midnight. He was supposed to be home before eleven. He really didn't want to move or to disturb Neji's sleeping form but he didn't know how to get home from here and he really had to be getting home.

"What's the matter?" Neji groaned as Gaara gently roused him. He looked at Gaara's anxious face and his eyes widened. "Gaara, what's wrong?"

"I was supposed to be home before eleven but now it's 12:45am and I really have to get home only I don't know the way..." Gaara stared at Neji's face searching desperately for confirmation of transport.

"Can't you just stay the night? I'm sure that your father will understand..." He trailed off as he saw the fear and anxiety in Gaara's face. "Okay. I'll drop you home if you kiss me".

Gaara's face burst into a relieved grin before he leaned down on Neji and pushed their lips together in a soft yet passionate kiss. Neji opened his mouth and allowed Gaara's tongue entry. They began exploring each others mouths until Gaara pulled back.

"Now I really need to go home!" Neji pulled on his jacket, grabbed his keys and the two boys crept downstairs and outside to Neji's car. The drive to Gaara's house seemed to take an eternity though in reality, it was only about 15 minutes.

When Neji pulled up to the kerb outside Gaara's house, he pulled the smaller boy into another kiss and arranged a meeting place for them tomorrow. Gaara bade him goodbye and went inside. He was about to sneak upstairs when he felt a very hard object connect with the side of his head.

"Where the fuck have you been ya little whore?" His father's drunken figure loomed above him. He gave his son a vicious kick in the ribs. "Were you out with ya little faggot friends? Fucking filthy little shit! I'll teach you to be a little gay cunt!" Mr Sabaku began punching Gaara's lithe form furiously before throwing him out onto the sidewalk. "And don't come back ya fucking ass-licker!"

Several hours later, Gaara came to, shivering violently. He began to head towards the closest safe place he could think of. Gaara tripped and fell, coughing up blood violently. He managed to get back to his feet and continued his desperate journey. _Only fourteen more houses. Thirteen houses, twelve, eleven, ten._ It became a mantra, a desperate litany to keep him going. _Seven_. He was going to make it! _Six houses, five_. His destination was in sight! He only had to keep going for a little longer. _Three houses, Two, One_. He was at the gate and moving down the driveway. He came to the front door and rapped loudly three times on the hard wood before collapsing against it. The door swung inward and Gaara collapsed into the strong arms of Zabuza and finally knew he was safe.

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A/N: So what did you think? I hope you liked it and please review and tell me what I'm doing wrong! 


	3. Reassurances and Revelations

A/N: Hello! Sorry it took a while but seemed to be having some problems as it wouldn't let me upload any documents. I hope you enjoy it and is some lime-ish shounen ai in this chapter so don't say I didn't warn you!

Disclaimer: No unlawful claiming. No suing. No living in cardboard boxes, kapeesh?

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Chapter Three: Reassurances and revelations.

Gaara blearily opened his eyes to find himself lying on a couch, dressed only in his boxers with someone bending over him. He blinked, remembered what had happened last night and gasped as a sharp pain cut through his brain as he tried to sit up.

"Don't move", Haku ordered, gently pushing him back down. "You've been hurt pretty badly and have only just been seen by the doctor. She said that you have to stay here for the next few days and can't go back to school this week". Gaara groaned and looked down at himself. His chest had been bandaged as had his head, he smelled strongly of disinfectant and had several gashes down his arms and legs.

"So he finally woke up, huh?" Zabuza stood in the doorway, staring down at Gaara with a concerned frown on his face. "How are you feeling?"

"Well I feel like I just got steamrolled with burning spikes but other than that everything's fine I suppose", Gaara's dry comment was ignored as Zabuza crouched down next to him and looked directly into Gaara's eyes.

"I want you to tell me who did this", he stated calmly. Gaara averted his gaze and mumbled something about not remembering. But Zabuza was having none of that. "Haku's about to go to pick up some clothes from your house. Is there any reason for him not to do so?" Gaara looked up into Zabuza's face and sighed. He had no choice.

"My father has been hurting me for the past 10 years. He blames me for my mother's death and after he found out I was gay, the beatings became even more regular until he beat me on a daily basis. I got home late last night so he was in a foul mood. He had been drinking and when he saw me being dropped off by Neji he must have freaked out", Gaara's voice was flat and emotionless as he told his sad, sad story. "That's why Haku can't go to my house. My father could attack him too". Gaara finished with a pleading look in his eye.

"I'm still going", Haku stated firmly. "Gaara needs clothes and I'm not afraid of an abusive alcoholic bastard like his father". Haku stared into Gaara's eyes before marching out the door and down the street. When he arrived at Gaara's house he was greeted by yelling and the smashing of objects. He uncertainly knocked on the door and was greeted by a youth with tattoos framing his face.

"Can I help you?" Kankuro asked with a sad expression on his face.

"Yes. I'm here to pick up some of Gaara's clothes as he has nothing but his school uniform to wear". Kankuro's eyes widened as he realised who it was at his door.

"Who is it, boy?" A voice yelled from inside the house and Mr Sabaku stumbled into sight. "What the fuck do you want, nancy?" Haku ignored the rude insinuation and stared coolly into the drunk's eyes.

"I'm here to pick up some clothes for Gaara. I believe he used to live here?" Mr Sabaku gave a yell and lunged at Haku but tripped as Kankuro stuck out one of his legs. He glared angrily at his son as he climbed unsteadily to his feet.

"Get the hell off my property!" He yelled in Haku's face. Haku appeared unfazed and continued to stare coldly at the monster before him.

"Not without Gaara's things. I came here for that and if you send me home you'll only be making things worse for yourself", Haku replied with a glare. Mr Sabaku punched Haku on the chin and made him step back slightly. Haku glared at the drunk in front of him and was about to attack before Kankuro stopped him by laying a hand on his shoulder and sadly shaking his head. Haku gave a disgusted look to the man behind Kankuro and left.

When he arrived back at his house, Zabuza jumped up as soon as he saw the purple bruise on Haku's chin. He practically shook with rage before walking out the door, slamming it behind him. He marched all the way to Gaara's house and rapped angrily on the door. It was answered by a very angry drunk. "I told you to piss off you little-", Mr Sabaku's insult trailed off as he saw the large man standing before him.

"I'm here for Gaara's things", he stated simply before walking boldly into the house. The alcoholic stuttered about how he already told the first one no but Zabuza paid no attention.

"You can't just walk in here and demand things!" The drunk was completely ignored as Zabuza made his way upstairs and into Gaara's room where he began to collect up all of his scant possessions and piled them into a suitcase before turning to leave. As he walked past the drunken monster, a girl with blonde hair tied up on either side of her head stopped him.

"Excuse me, but could I come and visit him? I'm worried about him and need to make sure you're taking good care of him". She stared into Zabuza's face, afraid that he would say no.

"If he wants to see you, you're welcome." He turned to leave but stopped as he came level with the older, shorter man. "Oh and if you ever touch Haku again, I'll let him practice his martial arts on you. If you think I'm frightening, you should see him when he thinks I'm in danger. Drinking's really just injecting poison into your kidneys. I recommend you drink more". With that, Zabuza made his way back home with Temari and Kankuro in tow.

Gaara was surprised and touched that his siblings had followed the intimidating Zabuza just to make sure he was alright. Their visit was short as their father rang Temari's cell-phone and demanded that they come home. Shortly after they left, Sasuke and Naruto turned up with flowers and a card. It was as he was being hugged tightly by Naruto that Gaara remembered his date with Neji and quickly rang his cell.

"Hello?" Neji's soft voice nearly made Gaara sigh with contentment but he managed to restrain himself.

"Um Neji, it's me, Gaara. I have to postpone our date because of my broken ribs but-"

"What?! You're not serious! What happened to your ribs? Are you okay? Do you need me to call the hospital? Should I-".

"I'm fine, Neji", Gaara cut across him. "I'm at Haku's and I've already seen the doctor and she said I'd be fine as long as I rest for the next week". Neji let out an audible sigh and relaxed back in his chair. "Would you like to come here and visit me?" Gaara's voice sounded hopeful and so cute. Neji couldn't refuse.

"Of course!" He exclaimed and heard Gaara laugh. "What time should I come?"

"Anytime's fine", Gaara replied happily and heard Neji picking up his keys and moving downstairs.

"I'll be there in about fifteen minutes", Neji vowed and hung up.

"Well?" Naruto demanded, earning himself a whack from Sasuke. "Is he coming or what?"

"He said he'll be here in fifteen minutes", Gaara replied and Naruto made a childish noise before dodging a swipe from Sasuke. Gaara sat back contentedly, then realised that he was still only wearing his boxers from yesterday. He was about to ask for his clothes when he saw Haku was smiling at him, holding out a pair of jeans and a clean pair of boxers.

"You won't be able to wear a shirt until Monday", Haku explained his lack of upper body garment before Gaara could ask. "Here, I'll take you to the bathroom but I hope you can put on pants by yourself". Haku smiled that sweet warm smile of his and assisted Gaara to the bathroom where he successfully changed his boxers alone but then had to request Haku's help with getting the jeans on. Once dressed Haku half carried Gaara back to the sofa and placed him back into his original position.

Five minutes later, Neji arrived with a bouquet of snow-white lilies and deep crimson roses in addition to a get well soon card with the same flowers patterning it. How he had acquired such rare and customised items in the space of fifteen minutes was beyond Gaara, but he didn't mind really. Neji and Gaara were left alone as the teenagers went into Haku's bedroom and Zabuza had gone food shopping.

"I'm sorry about our date", Gaara began but Neji stopped him with a gentle kiss.

"It doesn't really matter", Neji reassured his boyfriend, kissing him again. "I didn't particularly want to see the movie; I probably would have just ended up watching you anyway. So really, this is much cosier and fitting". He pulled Gaara into another soft kiss which swiftly deepened. The lovers were brought back to reality by a loud thump and giggling coming from upstairs. Sasuke and Naruto were playing twister and seemed to be entertaining Haku rather well.

"Neji, do you think that there is something going on between Sasuke and Naruto?" Gaara asked suddenly aware that the two seemed a little closer than friends.

"Well they do seem to sit awfully close together and go everywhere they can together so I suppose that it's possible. Do you think they know we're a little more than friends?" Neji made an answer to his question rather impossible as he claimed Gaara's soft lips again. Upstairs, Sasuke and Naruto were in a rather compromising position. Sasuke was leaning against Naruto's ass with Naruto on his hands and knees in front of Sasuke. Haku was in hysterics at how uncomfortable Naruto looked and the look of lust slightly visible in Sasuke's eyes. Naruto noticed, whimpered and toppled sideways deliberately.

"I think they may suspect something", Gaara finally replied with a smile as they broke for air.

The rest of the evening past without incident and at around 9:45pm Neji dropped Naruto and Sasuke off at the Uchiha mansion and drove home. He came for another visit the next day and stayed until 10pm. While the others were at school and Zabuza was at work, Gaara was slowly practising standing up on his own and moving further and further away from the sofa. By Wednesday, he was able to get to the bathroom and back without any pain, and by Friday, he could walk all the way upstairs and back down, to the kitchen and all around the house without strain.

On Friday evening, Neji came for his usual nightly visit and he and Gaara snuggled up on the couch while the others sat in armchairs or, in the case of Naruto, lay sprawled all over the floor as they watched the Friday night movie, Bram Stoker's Dracula. On Saturday, Gaara was checked by the doctor again and had his bandages changed and was deemed fit to go to school on Monday. Now that he was well enough, Gaara and Neji finally had their date and decided to go see Pan's Labyrinth. No one really seemed to notice the two boys in the back making out. At the end of the movie, a very embarrassed usher had to come and ask them to leave so they could clean up for the next movie.

On Sunday, Gaara went over to Neji's and they spent the day lying on Neji's bed and playing PS2. The next day Gaara went back to school and found that he hadn't missed much work as the teachers were as eccentric as ever. Sasuke and Naruto had unofficially made their relationship known and Sasuke told Sakura the bad news, looking forward to seeing her crushed face, he was disappointed.

"Oh, Sasuke! That's why you didn't respond to me!" Sakura proclaimed during calculus. "It's not that you didn't like me; you just weren't physically attracted to me! And you just didn't want to hurt my feelings by telling me outright! Aw that's so sweet! Now we can be best friends!" She gave him a huge hug and Gaara nearly broke his ribs again at Sasuke's horrified expression as she began to chatter on to him about the boys she liked.

At break, Sasuke had been dragged off to hang out with Sakura and Ino as they're new "girl"-friend.

At lunch Sakura came and hung out with Sasuke's friends instead. Much to Naruto's horror, she seemed adamant that he and Sasuke would have to go shopping with her and Ino sometime. She then raced off to do something or another. Haku said she was probably going to go and plan to act happy.

"I can't believe you put up with that!" Naruto growled at his boyfriend menacingly.

"Well it seems too mean to just tell her to go away", Sasuke mumbled in a dejected kind of way.

"Yeah well, you should just live by that Celtic proverb; "Everyone can be pleasant until a cow invades your garden", Haku informed them dryly causing Neji to laugh so hard that Gaara nearly rolled off his chest. The rest of the day passed in a very dull way and that night Gaara's last thought before falling asleep was: _Well it sure has been a week of reassurances and revelations_. Then darkness claimed him and he dreamt of Neji and that deep rich chuckle of his resonating in the Hyuuga's great entrance hall.

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A/N: So that was chapter three! Hope you liked it and as always, read and review! 


	4. Who's that guy in the kitchen?

A/N: Hello! I already had this chapter ready so I'm leaving it on for a day before updating, just to let the last one sink in. I'm sorry that this chapter doesn't really have much to do with Gaara but I thought Haku was lonely and he is my favourite character so he deserves his own chapter.

Warning: Same as last time except this one has implied sex.

Dislaimer: Same as always. No owning of anything except the plot.

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Chapter Four: Who's that guy in the kitchen?

Gaara's week back at school was calm and relaxing and for the first time in his sixteen years of life, he felt completely safe and loved. He had a boyfriend that loved him, he was out of his father's house and living with his recently made best friend. Life was good. On Friday of Gaara's week back, after school, Gaara, Neji, Naruto and Haku were going to stay at the Uchiha mansion for the whole weekend as Sasuke's parents had decided to go on a world trip and would be gone for several months, leaving Sasuke and Naruto to house-sit for them. When they arrived there after school, the boys all claimed a bedroom each, Haku by himself but the others sharing. They decided to watch movies for that first night so Sasuke set up the projector

"I'm going to go make some popcorn!" Haku called as he made his way to the kitchen but froze as he saw a strange man sitting at the table, drinking coffee and reading some sort of report. Haku quickly returned to the living room.

"Uh, where's the popcorn?" Naruto asked, looking as if he might cry.

"Sasuke", Haku's voice sounded slightly strained Sasuke noticed and looked around from what he was doing to see Haku looking rather pale next to a Naruto who was sobbing softly into Gaara's shoulder.

"What's wrong, Haku?" Sasuke moved around the couch to look his friend in the eye.

"Who's that guy in the kitchen?" Haku's query was answered by said man walking into the living room and taking a second glance at the teens in front of him.

"Itachi!" Sasuke all but squealed and rushed forward to embrace his brother, all dignity forgotten. Sasuke coughed as he realised what he was doing and blushed slightly. "Uh guys, this is Itachi, Itachi, these are my friends, Gaara, Haku, Naruto and Neji". Sasuke turned around to see, to his horror, Itachi staring at Naruto, who had stopped sobbing, suspiciously.

"What are your intentions with my brother?" Itachi's question caught Naruto off-guard.

"Well I...I...uh", Naruto stuttered, dumbfounded by Itachi's forwardness. He eventually came back to himself and looked Itachi in the eye. "I'm going to have smutty boy sex with him, obviously!" Naruto giggled insanely at the taken-aback look on both the Uchihas' faces.

"I...I see". Now it was Itachi's turn to stutter as Naruto had fits of laughter on the floor and Haku rolled his eyes.

"Sorry about Naruto", Haku apologised, irritated. "He obviously left his brain in his locker, again". Haku went and steered a shocked Sasuke over to the projector while Gaara and Neji made jokes about Naruto's room temperature IQ and Itachi's bluntness. Sasuke finished setting up the projector as Haku helped a still giggling Naruto up off the floor.

"Are you going top make popcorn now?" Naruto was pleading with Haku, giving him his most pathetic looking puppy dog eyes. Haku sighed and made his way into the kitchen and was surprised when Itachi followed him.

"You're Haku?" His question made Haku give him a pitying look before noticing just how nicely Itachi fitted into his black jeans. Haku turned around quickly after nodding slightly.

"Do you think I could maybe get past you, for the microwave?" Haku asked politely and Itachi moved slowly out of the way, his eyes never leaving Haku.

"How old are you?" The question took Haku by surprise but he answered evenly as he set the microwave for 1 minute and a half.

"I'll be eighteen in a couple of weeks. How old are _you_?" Haku asked turning around to appraise the attractive man standing in front of him.

"I'll be 23 in a couple of months. Do you need help with anything?" Haku smiled at how awkward the man looked and saw him relax visibly as he noticed Haku's warm, beautiful smile.

"You can help me carry the bowls". It was only now that Itachi noticed that Haku had made four rather large bowls filled with popcorn. "Two for Naruto and Sasuke, one for Gaara and Neji and one for us", Haku replied, noticing the confusion on Itachi's face before handing him two of the bowls and exiting the kitchen with his own. He had deliberately implied that he had no reservations of sharing with Itachi and was sure that the older Uchiha had picked up on it.

"Finally!" Naruto groaned and snatched both of Itachi's bowls as soon as he saw them. Neji was about to protest but Haku kindly handed him a large bowl before sitting down on the couch next to Itachi, which Sasuke thought was strange but didn't pay much attention to it, focussing at the problem at hand.

"So what does everyone want to watch?" Sasuke was met by a thoughtful silence that lasted all of three seconds before Naruto leapt to his feet.

"I vote we watch an action movie!" He smiled down at his friends, expecting them to instantly agree with him. That was not, however what happened. Gaara snorted and ignored Naruto, Neji angrily glared at the smiling blonde, Sasuke rolled his eyes, Itachi groaned and Haku shook his head sadly at his friend.

"I think we should watch a horror", Gaara said after Naruto had dejectedly sat back down to sulk more effectively.

"I don't mind what we watch all that much, as long as it's good", Neji stated, putting his arms around Gaara with a smiled slowly appearing at the edges of his mouth.

"I think we should watch a comedy that is also depressing. Itachi agrees with me", Haku informed Sasuke while Itachi just shrugged and nodded.

"So we have one vote for action, one vote for horror, one vote for an actual good movie and two for comedy. I think we should watch..." Sasuke turned to his DVD collection and began surveying it severely. "Brotherhood of the Wolf, May and Love Actually", Sasuke finished with agreement from his friends. They all settled down to watch the movies and within 10 minutes were regretting letting Naruto have a movie with even the slightest hint of action in it. Naruto leapt around the room during the fighting and moaned during the dialogue. By the time the movie finished, Sasuke had to hold down a struggling Naruto and Neji had to restrain Gaara from killing the hyperactive blonde.

"I think", Haku's soft voice startled the others out of their bickering. "That we need more popcorn for the next movie. The horror wasn't it?" Sasuke nodded dumbly and Gaara quickly turned back to the T.V, forgetting the fracas instantly. Naruto stopped struggling and sulked about having to watch "Another dumb talking movie". Haku and Itachi went to make more popcorn and again Sasuke wondered if something was going on there.

"I see you followed me again", Haku smiled as Itachi sauntered into the kitchen behind him. "I take it you're only interested in helping out?" Haku grinned mischievously and moved a little closer to the older Uchiha.

"Well I wouldn't want to make you work overly hard when I could so easily help you", Itachi replied, catching the younger boy's tone and began closing the distance between them as well. "I also need to be here for protection", they were very close now.

"Protection from what?" Haku asked, doing his best to look concerned with a playful smile curving his soft lips.

"Men, like me", Itachi answered and leaned in to kiss the younger male but was interrupted by a cough and turned to see his brother smiling at him from the doorway.

"Oh don't let me stop you!" Sasuke actually laughed and ran down the hall, probably to tell the others his juicy little secret.

"Now, where were we?" Haku pushed his lips against Itachi's and kissed him, gently for entrance which was quickly given. He began to explore the older man's mouth until they were rudely interrupted by the sound of the microwave, announcing the completion of popcorn. "And I was just starting to really enjoy that!" Haku complained softly before moving to finish preparing the food. Itachi whimpered slightly at the lack of contact but savoured the Haku's lingering taste of vanilla. The two made their way back to the living room where they were greeted by a chorus of Aw from Sasuke and Naruto and warm smiles from Neji and Gaara.

The rest of the night passed with Naruto being annoying, Gaara being murderous and Itachi and Haku murmuring sweet nothings to each other. The next day dawned and Haku woke up lying next to Itachi in the bed they had shared the night before. Haku just lay there for a while, tracing Itachi's jaw and face with one hand while playing with his long black locks with the other. Itachi groaned in his sleep and Haku withdrew his hand, not wanting to wake his lover. Haku swung softly out of bed, got dressed in black pants and a black long-sleeved t-shirt before making his way downstairs and into the kitchen.

"Did you have a good time last night?" Sasuke greeted Haku with a smirk before indicating the coffee he had made earlier.

"As a matter of fact, I did. Why didn't you tell me that your brother would be staying here as well? I thought he was still abroad." Haku poured himself a cup of strong coffee, before turning back to his friend.

"I honestly didn't know. I knew he was coming home soon but I figured he'd call first. He hasn't been in any sort of relationship for years. I'm glad you managed to open him up a bit. Ignore the pun", Haku shot him a withering look before smiling at the memory of last night. It had been completely innocent at first. Just snuggling but Haku was a 17 year old male with hormones racing through his body so it had evolved to something more adult. "Earth to Haku! Hello?" Haku snapped out of his reverie when he realised he hadn't said anything for the past five minutes.

"I'm sorry, what?" Sasuke groaned and rolled his eyes.

"I asked you what you wanted to do today. But I think I can already guess", Sasuke smirked before muttering something about waking up a dobe and making his way upstairs to his bedroom. Haku sat and drank his coffee before getting up to make some toast. As he was standing, staring out the kitchen window, he felt strong arms encompass his waist and leaned back into Itachi's embrace, giving his face a soft kiss before going back to his toast making.

"Why do you insist on cooking all the time?" Itachi asked teasingly. "Sit down, I'm going to make pancakes!" Haku did as he was bid and soon Itachi had not only Haku but the other four boys waiting expectantly for pancakes. The result being that Itachi had to make over fifty pancakes, exhausting the house of eggs and milk. Sasuke was still complaining at how Naruto had eaten 22 pancakes on his own as they all drove to the mall. (Neji driving Gaara and himself there in his car) The four younger boys ran around the shops causing trouble and Itachi and Haku moved at a more sedate pace, walking hand in hand. They received several filthy looks from people but they didn't really mind. Ahead of them, Naruto seemed to have aggravated some teenage boys and was in a small amount of trouble. As Haku and Itachi drew closer, they heard the boys yelling things like "faggot" and "Gay-fucks!" Itachi became rather angry.

"Is there a problem here, gentlemen?" Haku asked pleasantly as the boys formed a circle around Naruto, Sasuke, Gaara and Neji.

"Stay outta this, tranny!" One of them yelled. The others guffawed at the joke. Haku stepped forward smartly and twisted his insulters arm behind his back painfully.

"I would appreciate it if we could keep this friendly, gentlemen", he stated simply, letting go of the boy and shoving him forwards. The others moved menacingly towards Haku but were stopped by strong hands as Itachi grabbed five of them easily.

"I would revise that plan if I were you", he hissed nastily in their faces. Neji suddenly moved into a battle stance and knocked one boy who was trying to sneakily advance on Gaara, off his feet and on his back. The boys suddenly decided they should let this fight go and turned tail and fled.

"Well that was annoying", Sasuke said calmly as Naruto hugged Haku and Itachi gratefully.

"Yay! You saved us! I think Neji would have hurt them real bad if you guys hadn't helped!" Naruto gleefully jumped off of a shocked Itachi and latched onto Sasuke again. That night, the boys watched movies again until they fell asleep at various places around the living room. On Sunday, the boys decided to just stay at home after their run in at the mall. They all went home that night, and Haku decided to wait a while to talk to Zabuza about his new boyfriend, he had no idea how his brother would react. His last act before climbing into bed was to tie the small dream catcher Itachi had given him to his bedpost and stared at the intricate design of feathers and beads before allowing sleep to claim him...

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A/N: So how was that? I promise to include a lot more about Gaara and his time in Suna in the next chapter. Sorry if this lacked angst but oh well. I'm also open to plot suggestions, even though I already have a very good idea of what should happen. Please R and R! 


	5. An Unexpected Visit

A/N: Okay so there's more Gaara in this chapter and I've introduced three characters that I made up myself so let me know how I did and if I should make them main, okay?

Warning: Same as before only there isn't really any yaoi in this chapter...

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the songs mentioned in this story. They include: Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm by Crash Test Dummies, She Don't Use Jelly by The Flaming Lips, Empty by the Cranberries and Without You I'm Nothing by Placebo

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Chapter Five: An Unexpected Visit.

Gaara woke up on Monday morning with a dull ache in his chest. He tried to ignore it and continued his day as usual. He found it extremely difficult to ignore however, especially when he looked at his friends. As Gaara made his way to his Calculus with Sasuke, he suddenly realised what the pain was. He missed his friends from back in Suna, the thing that had set off these feelings was the song Zombie by the Cranberries being played on the radio the night before. His friends, D'gani, Nia and Rai were in a band and had done a cover of that song on the day that Gaara left.

"Gaara, is there something wrong?" Sasuke looked concernedly at his friend's sad, distant expression.

"No nothing. I guess I just miss some people I knew in Suna", Gaara answered absently, still in a state of miserable nostalgia. The rest of the week passed in a blur and Gaara was still homesick. On Friday he continued his day mutely, causing much concern from his friends. While he was in Performing Arts, a song suddenly blared over the intercom. Gaara recognised it instantly; it was D'gani's favourite song by the Cranberries, Empty. Gaara was confused; he wondered what had come over the headmistress, playing music over the intercom. Then the classroom door burst open and three very familiar figures stepped forward.

"Excuse me!" the teacher scolded them angrily "But I am trying to teach a class and-" She was cut off by a glare from the only female in the group as they made their way back to a now standing Gaara.

"Hello, Gaara", stated the boy with a mop of crimson hair with black bangs half concealing his heavily made up face, smiling in what most people would have considered a very creepy way. "Did you miss me?" Gaara pulled the strange boy into a hug.

"D'gani! Rai! Nia! What are you guys doing here?" Gaara almost squealed in his excitement at seeing his much-loved friends.

"Well we decided we had to see you and Nia just turned 18 and is now our legal guardian. She decided we should move to Konoha. Is there a problem with that?" D'gani was grinning widely at Gaara's stunned expression.

"Oh that's so wonderful!" Gaara continued to beam at his friends. Sasuke coughed slightly and Gaara blushed, unable to believe he had forgotten his friend and lover. "Oh sorry! Sasuke, Neji, this is D'gani, Nia and Rai. Guys this is my good friend Sasuke and my boyfriend Neji". D'gani smiled at Sasuke before inspecting Neji suspiciously.

"Well", D'gani finally spoke after a thoughtful pause. "He's hot! But he best be treating you well or we 'll have to beat him to death with his own shoes". Neji laughed nervously at the serious face D'gani still wore. Nia stepped forward.

"Well hi guys!" She said warmly. "Don't worry about D'gani, he's a bit of a freak and I think he was joking about the homicide thing. I think", she reassured them with a laugh. Rai inclined his head to the two boys.

"He may be a freak", he said, slipping his arm around D'gani's waist. "But he's _my_ freak". He laughed a deep chuckle and Sasuke smiled. Gaara was still speechless that his friends had just burst into his class. Unfortunately, the teacher wasn't so calm.

"Right!" She exclaimed pointing her finger at the three newcomers. "I don't know who you think you are, but no one interrupts my class! Do you attend this school-" she was again interrupted this time by D'gani.

"Calm yourself, dear woman." He commanded her pleasantly. "I informed the headmistress of our visit and she kindly played the music for us. I have her permission to take Gaara and any of his friends out of school for the day. Teach these misbegotten students if you must but Gaara, his companions, my companions and I are leaving now". He beckoned to the others and left poor Lee alone in his group. They went to Naruto and Haku's classes before leaving the school and heading to Sasuke's.

"Wow!" D'gani exclaimed as they walked into the mansion's driveway. "I really love this song!" Gaara, Nia and Rai just laughed at the others' bemused expressions.

"D'gani has a song playing in his head constantly. It's like having an ipod in his head except he can't turn it off and it doesn't only play things he likes. Any song that he's heard at least once could come on at any time", Rai explained lovingly as D'gani hummed along with the music only he could hear. "It can be annoying sometimes when in serious situations he's singing along to some strange thing in another language, but for the most part it's just funny". Gaara's new friends just gaped in amazement at the multicoloured haired teenager.

"Are we just going to stand around here all day, or are we going inside?" Nia asked impatiently and the boys woke out of their stupor and began walking up the long drive. Itachi wanted to know what his brother was doing home from school but Haku placed a kiss on his lips.

"Cause then, there was this boy whose parents made him come directly home right after school and when they went to their church, they shook and lurched all over the church floor. He couldn't quite explain it; they'd always just gone there!" D'gani suddenly burst into song and danced his way into the kitchen. Rai followed gently teasing his lover about his mild insanity.

"Oookay. That was weird", Itachi was staring concernedly after the strange boy. "Is he going to be okay?" The others just laughed as D'gani came back holding drinks and snack food.

"I know this girl who reminds me of Cher; she's always changing the colour of her hair. Now she don't use nothing, that you buy at the store. She likes her hair to, be real orange. She uses taaaaaaaaangerines. Taaaaaaaangerines! " D'gani sang cheerfully as he dispensed the refreshments among his friends. Neji laughed loudly before the others joined in, leaving a slightly bemused D'gani checking their temperatures, completely oblivious to what they were laughing at.

After D'gani beat everyone at Singstar several times, Nia decided that they would go show Gaara and his friends their new house. They arrived at a fairly nice two story house that looked like it belonged on Desperate Housewives. The walked inside and soon realised why Nia had been so eager to show them. The interior design was using black and red to create the most evil looking dining room imaginable. The kitchen was purple and blue. The living room was green and silver. Just when the teenagers though the house couldn't look any weirder, they saw the bedrooms. To say the least, they were the oddest assortment of colours comprehensible. After showing them a grey and orange bathroom, Nia turned to her guests and smiled expectantly.

"So, what do you think?" She spread her arms proudly.

"Well it's very colourful", Sasuke answered eventually.

"And I liked the kitchen", Haku lied and added in an undertone "It looks like a great big bruise!" Nia heard and smiled a large fake smile.

"So you all hate it do you?" The males shook their heads apprehensively, except D'gani who muttered something about Jeremy speaking in class that day. "Well I guess if you all hate it so much", she glared at the males in front of her. "I could always make you repaint it..." She left the threat hanging and stalked off, muttering about people not understanding artistic genius.

"And you call me insane", D'gani giggled and led the boys into his room, which was peach and white. Gaara was so pleased to be around his friends again, that he didn't care about how garish the house was, or the fact that Neji hadn't let go of Gaara since he saw D'gani hug him. Gaara just sat and enjoyed the company, snuggling into Neji's shoulder and wishing that this day could go on forever.

The weekend passed in a blur of fun and happiness, Gaara had never understood why he had been so sad to leave Suna but now he did. He didn't miss the city itself, he missed the people he loved. On Sunday, Haku decided to go introduce his new friends (and Itachi) to Zabuza. Unfortunately, to get there they would have to walk past Gaara's old house. Gaara was extremely nervous, in case he had to see his father again but rationalised that his father would probably be nowhere near a window and if he had so many friends with him, he wouldn't try anything.

"It's not like your father's going to try anything with Itachi here", Neji tried to reassure Gaara as they made their way to Haku's, Gaara and Haku in the middle of the group just in case Gaara's father had been looking out the window at that moment. Unfortunately he had been looking out his window and spotted D'gani.

"What the fuck are you doing here ya little faggot!" He screamed at the pale youth. "Where the fuck is that little whore that you think is my son?" D'gani calmly stepped forward to greet the large man advancing on him.

"I must ask that you do not try anything, Mr. Sabaku", He stated calmly, still moving toward the advancing man. "I don't want a repeat of last time". The man froze and shook with anger as he remembered how this boy had punched one of his nerves, effectively knocking him out.

"You got lucky, ya little gay shit!" He lunged at D'gani who easily sidestepped and grabbed the man's arm as he moved past him. He twisted it painfully and held on to a certain point just above the elbow until the man was unconscious. He walked back to the group and stood next to Gaara as they continued walking.

"That was no martial art I've ever seen", Neji informed the boy as he came level with him.

"That's because it wasn't a martial art. It was a mere placement of pressure on a collection of nerves. You only have to know the pressure points and how to hit them to bring an opponent down within seconds. " He turned and smiled at the Hyuuga. "You don't need to worry; I don't want to take your Gaara away from you. I only need his ear to talk to." His smile widened at the look of surprise the boy shot him before moving back to walk hand in hand with Rai. Neji smiled at his lover and visibly relaxed.

"Zabuza!" Haku's call was answered by the big man who strode out of the kitchen.

"Hello Haku. I see we've picked up some new friends", Zabuza smiled at the newcomers. Nia was staring at him, drool nearly coming out of her mouth.

"Cornelius, your mouth is hanging open", D'gani said in his cute little girl voice, which was scarily good. Zabuza's smile became warmer as the girl poked her tongue out at D'gani muttering something about it not being her fault Zabuza was hot. Zabuza coughed slightly before Haku introduced his new friends.

"Zabuza, these are my new friends D'gani, Nia and Rai and this", he turned to Itachi and pushed his small hand into Itachi's larger one "is my boyfriend, Uchiha Itachi". Zabuza's smile faded slightly as he examined a slightly terrified Itachi.

"Boyfriend, eh?" Zabuza walked around Itachi surveying him seriously. "You look a little old, to me. I want it understood that if you ever hurt Haku in any way shape or form, I will track you down and gut you like a fish". Itachi trembled for a moment, sighed with relief and nodded. Everyone in the room relaxed slightly. Except for D'gani.

"Strange infatuation seems to grace the evening tide; I'll take it by your side. Such imagination seems to help the feelings slide; I'll take it by your side. Instant correlation sucks and breeds a pack of lies; I'll take it by your side. Over-saturation curls the skin and tans the hide; I'll take it by your side", He sang, oblivious to Zabuza's stare. Zabuza walked up to him and...

"I'm unclean, a libertine and every time you vent your spleen I seem to lose the power of speech, you're slipping slowly from my reach, you grow me like an evergreen, you've never seen the lonely me at all!" Sang the two, holding on to each other as the others looked somewhat horrified.

"Oh god!" Nia wailed "Another nutcase!" The two continued singing regardless until the song ended upon which they hugged each other and bowed. The rest of the evening passed in a similar manner, Zabuza and D'gani singing and the rest laughing and crying in turns. The many guests left at around 9pm and Gaara settled down to sleep, completely content with the world because of an unexpected visit.

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A/N: So how did I do? I'm sorry if this chapter wasn't very good but it's kind of hard to do a three-way character introduction in the middle of a story. I promise that the next chapter will be devoted completely to Gaara and Neji! Please R and R! 


	6. The Secret Admirer

A/N: I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in ages! I just couldn't seem to make the words flow as well as they were before. I personally blame the school system! But then, I would. So tell me if you like the chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or the Placebo song Infra red.

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On Monday, D'gani and Rai enrolled themselves at Konoha High, although they wouldn't start until after the swiftly approaching spring holidays. Gaara's morning was uneventful except for when Sakura tried to rope him into going to the mall that afternoon, in an attempt to get Sasuke to go. Gym was different however. Because their teacher was sick, Gaara's class had to join with Neji's and be taught by a man named Ebisu, who Naruto immediately nicknamed "Closet Pervert". They were forced to climb rope and Gaara thankfully made it all the way to the top and back down. Neji clapped and took his turn, easily and rapidly reaching the top but when he got there, a very homophobic boy screamed out "Fag!" and shook the rope. Neji came loose and before a horrified Gaara, fell to land awkwardly on his left leg. His anguished scream ripped at Gaara's heart.

"NEJI!!!!" Gaara ran to his lover and saw that his face was scrunched up in pain. Neji's leg was bent in a very wrong way, making Gaara feel sick. The teacher pulled him away and Gaara was left standing in front of the one responsible. Gaara felt a foreign feeling sweep through his body; icy cold fury. The boy just glared at the advancing youth.

"Your boyfriend got what he deserved ya little-" He was cut off as Gaara's hands enclosed his throat and began to choke him. The boy pushed him off with a great gasp and had no time to prepare for the powerful uppercut Gaara dealt to him. The boy rolled backwards groaning. Gaara took no notice and began to kick, punch and maul the one who had cause his Neji so much pain.

"How dare you?!" His voice attracted the teacher to see the bloody frame of Neji's attacker. "You revolting, disgusting, slime-filled waste of skin!" He screamed at the whimpering boy in front of him before running back to Neji's side. Ebisu could only gape at the beaten wretched teen on the floor, as paramedics lifted Neji onto a stretcher with Gaara hanging on to his hand and into the back of an ambulance.

At the hospital, Gaara was made to sit in the waiting room while Neji had his leg bandaged and set, before being led to a room where he would have to stay the night. Then Gaara was allowed in to see him. Neji looked pale and was shaking slightly; the most vulnerable Gaara had ever seen him.

"Neji? Are you alright?" Gaara's queries were answered by Neji motioning him over and pulling him into a soft kiss that lasted as long as the teens could make it.

"I am now", he replied with a smile and pulled Gaara onto his right side, the better to cuddle him. "Did you really beat up that boy that knocked me off?" Neji sounded grateful as well as...touched? He was happy that Gaara would do something like that for him? Gaara just nodded. "Well...thank you", Neji whispered softly. They stayed like that for a while, just holding onto each other until a nurse came and asked Gaara to leave as visiting hours were over.

"Bye Neji!" It wasn't until Gaara reached the exit of the hospital that he realised he had no way to get home. He continued on to the car park regardless and to his surprise found Haku and Itachi waiting for him in Itachi's stylish black Mercedes.

"How is he?" Haku waited patiently for Gaara to settle himself in the back seat before receiving an answer to his question.

"The doctor said he'll be fine, it's not too serious, but he'll have to wear a cast and splint for the next few weeks", Gaara replied as Itachi drove them to Haku's house, barely turning the car off before Naruto and Sasuke burst out of the house. Gaara somehow managed to get out of the car and through the front door with Naruto hanging on to him and Sasuke, all dignity discarded, danced around him asking questions. Gaara was saved by Itachi who pulled the bothersome pair away long enough for Gaara to make it into the living room, where he found D'gani, Nia, Rai and Zabuza sitting around the room, in varying stages of anxiety.

"Is he alright?" D'gani's voice, several octaves higher than usual, was barely even audible over the struggling teens and Itachi behind Gaara.

"The doctors said he's going to be fine and will be able to go home tomorrow", Gaara replied patiently, placing his shoes neatly to one side of the armchair he was now perched on. Naruto and Sasuke burst into the room followed by an annoyed Itachi and an amused Haku.

"THAT"S SO GREAT!!!!" Naruto's shout almost deafened Gaara and earned him a smack round the back of the head from both Uchihas.

"Be quiet, dobe!" Sasuke hushed him, before forcing the blonde into a nearby chair and sitting on top of him. "The headmistress wants to see you in her office tomorrow", Sasuke informed Gaara gravely.

"I had almost forgotten about what I did..." Gaara trailed off hopelessly as he realised he would probably be expelled for his moment of wrath. Haku came and gently put his arm around his friend's shoulders.

"Don't worry, Gaara", he consoled the boy softly "we won't let her expel you. If she tries anything, I'll insist that she either expels all of us with you, or lets us all stay or else I'll have a lovely accident in several of the science departments simultaneously, effectively blowing up the school". Haku laughed his gentle, warm laugh and gave Gaara one last squeeze before moving back to Itachi.

"Thanks, guys. But whatever punishment she gives me, I won't let her give it to you as well", Gaara sighed and leaned back in the chair, wondering what he was going to do.

"What a pile of shit!" D'gani glared at Gaara. "You can pretend to be all honourable if you want, but there is no way in hell that I'll let that old hag do anything to you!" Gaara stared in surprise. He then realised why D'gani was the best friend that anyone could hope for. He was loyal, noble and lived by the saying he got from an X-men comic. 'Life is for the thrill and death is the reward at the end' Gaara smiled at his friend, strangely overcome with emotions.

"Well now that he's made up his mind", Rai laughed from his and D'gani's corner of the room "nothing can get him to change it". Gaara shrugged and grinned widely as D'gani began singing again.

"One last thing before I shuffle off the planet. I will be the one to make you crawl. So I came down to wish you an unhappy birthday, someone call the ambulance; there's gonna be an accident. I'm coming up on infrared. There is no running that can hide you, 'cause I can see in the dark. Forget your running, I will find you!" D'gani burst out while Nia shook her head and covered half her face with her hand in despair. Gaara laughed and suddenly everything was alright again.

The next day, Gaara made his way to Tsunade's office, knocked and waited, almost shaking with nerves.

"Enter!" Gaara jumped at the shout but slowly opened the door and stepped inside the large square room. Tsunade sat behind a large polished mahogany desk, he fingers laced together in a thoughtful manner. "And you are...?" The question caught Gaara off guard. She didn't‎ even know who he was?

"I'm Gaara Sabaku", Gaara replied quietly, slightly annoyed that she didn't even have the decency to know who he was.

"Oh yes", Tsunade responded coldly. "The great avenger. What do you think you're doing, attacking other students?" She glared at him. Gaara once again felt extremely angry.

"He attacked Neji!" Gaara's yell echoed around the silent room. "I was just supposed to let that ignorant pig get away with that?" Tsunade stared evenly at Gaara, waiting for a full five minutes before saying anything.

"I understand that you were angry", Tsunade finally said "But that's no excuse for putting someone in hospital. You're just lucky that his parents aren't pressing charges. I've called your father. He informed me that you no longer live with him. Where are you staying right now?" Tsunade stared indecipherably at Gaara while she spoke.

"I'm staying with Haku", Gaara replied stiffly. He didn't really like this woman.

"Haku's a senior? His brother's the big guy who's always half-naked? I'm going to let you off with a warning this time, but if you ever do anything like this again, you'll be suspended at the very least. You can go." Tsunade returned to the paper she was reading and Gaara walked slowly out of her office. He felt that the fact that he was staying with Zabuza had more than a little to do with why he was getting off so lightly.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully and after school, Nia drove Gaara to the hospital to visit his beloved. When Gaara entered Neji's room, he saw that Neji's uncle and cousin were there too. Neji's uncle gave Gaara a once-over before leading his daughter out of the room without a word.

"Hey, Neji. Are you going home today?" Gaara sat down on the end of his lover's bed.

"Yes. My uncle's going to pick me up later, after he fills out all of the forms. Sorry about him being so rude before", Neji gave a rueful chuckle "My uncle's not known for his warmth". Gaara hated that bitter tone in Neji's voice, and moved up the bed to place his lips against the older boy's. It quickly deepened, becoming more passionate than the other kisses. A battle for dominance began as Neji forced his way into the moaning redhead's mouth. They heard a slight cough and broke apart quickly, turning to see Neji's cousin Hinata standing in the doorway, blushing furiously.

"Um, Neji, father says it's time to leave now" Hinata said in barely more than a whisper, still bright red.

"Oh, um, okay, Hinata. I'll be out in a minute", Neji replied embarrassedly. Hinata nodded, blushed again and hurried out of the room. Neji stared longingly at Gaara, sighed and grabbed his bag. "Do you need a ride?"

"No. Nia's waiting for me outside. Thanks anyway. Call me tonight?" Gaara stared hopefully into Neji's eyes. Neji chuckled at how cute Gaara was before pulling him into another soft kiss.

"Definitely!" Gaara made his way through the parking lot, looking for the familiar, red Subaru legacy. Suddenly, something solid hit the side of Gaara's head, sending him reeling off in the opposite direction. A foot flew out of nowhere and hit his ribs, hard. He gasped as a sharp pain stabbed into him.

"Stay away from Neji Hyuga!" The voice was obviously female, but Gaara heard a deep throaty chuckle that was evidently male. Suddenly, there was a roaring and Gaara smelled the acrid smoke of an exhaust pipe as his attackers sped away on a motorbike. Gaara groaned and got slowly to his feet. He spotted Nia's car and limped over to it.

"Gaara!" She exclaimed as soon as she saw him. "What the hell happened? Are you okay?" She jumped out of the car and over to where Gaara was standing. "It wasn't your father again was it?" He face visibly darkened as she said this.

"No. I didn't see who..." Gaara tried to say but had to pause to wheeze. Nia helped him to the car and drove them back to Haku's house after Gaara waved away her thought of taking him to the hospital. Haku got a first aid kit from the bathroom and Zabuza began to treat Gaara's more serious injuries.

"What happened?" Haku asked gently as Zabuza applied antiseptic to a cut on Gaara's forehead. Gaara was silent for a few moments, wincing at the sting it caused.

"I was attacked. I didn't see who by, but there was definitely two of them, a boy and a girl I think. The girl told me to stay away from Neji", Gaara replied, still slightly out of breath from the several kicks to his abdomen.

"I don't think you should go to school tomorrow", Zabuza informed him. "And I think you should go to sleep now, you'll have some nasty bruises in the morning, but at least they didn't touch you're face". Gaara was too exhausted and obsequiously did as he was bid. His last thought as whatever Haku had put into his glass of water took over him was: _I wonder why Neji hasn't called yet..._

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A/N: So that's the chapter! Hope you like, I'm not sure I do but oh well. Read and Review please!_  
_


	7. Sex Drugs and Rock 'n Roll

A/N: Okay, so another chapter! Sorry if it's not very good, but I did try and I updated faster. And my story has over 1000 hits! Yay! Plus, I'm only doing this because I have 3 assignments due in and I'm so not doing them until the last second. Uh, thank you to all my reviewers, you inspire me to write more often! Especially Artemis of the Shadow, you've reviewed almost religiously since the first chapter!

Warning: This chapter has stronger limes than I've put in before so watch out.

Disclaimer: I only own Kathy's sister's baby which I rightfully stole.

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D'gani felt Rai climb into bed next to him and begin to kiss his neck, demandingly. D'gani continued to lie motionless, hoping he'd catch the hint. Angry at his lover's unresponsiveness, Rai became more insistent, running his hands up and down D'gani's body in an effort to entice him. "Not tonight, Rai," D'gani replied, pushing him away gently, but firmly. 

"Come on!" Rai's tone was lusty and frustrated at being refused, he shook D'gani gently. "You know you want to..."

"Rai! I said, no!" D'gani said, louder this time, shoving him away with more vigour. Rai slapped D'gani's hands away and angrily glared at his lover. When he made yet another failing attempt, he finally lost his temper and punched D'gani hard in the face.

"Fine. Have it your way," Rai's voice was bitter as he left D'gani with a bleeding and swollen top lip. D'gani began to cry softly after they completed the nightly ritual.

Gaara and Neji took the rest of the week off and as it was the last week of term, there was going to be a party on the first Saturday of spring break. To his immense surprise, Gaara was invited, along with all his other friends. The party was being thrown by Kiba, who Gaara had Performing Arts with, but hardly knew. The invitation said you could bring a non-invited date, so Itachi could come. D'gani had also somehow made friends with the dog obsessed boy, so he, Nia and Rai had also been invited.

"What are you gonna wear?" D'gani asked Gaara on Saturday morning, he had stayed the night and packed his outfit which looked like it belonged in late Victorian times. He described it as "retardedly awesome".

"I think I'm gonna wear my leather pants, with my black silk vest and those mesh gloves that go all the way up my arms and loop around under my top and back out at my waist. What do you think?" Gaara held up his outfit.

"I think you're gonna look like a sexy gothic pirate!" D'gani laughed at the look of consternation on Gaara's face. "No, but seriously, you'll look great!" D'gani smiled but winced as that aggravated the bruise on his face.

"Why do you let him do that to you?" Gaara asked, a pained expression framing his sea-foam green eyes.

"Why do you let your father do it to you?" D'gani retorted waspishly, annoyed at how the conversation was progressing. Gaara sighed and the subject was dropped, in favour of wondering how hot Neji would be and what kind of thing he might wear. That night, Neji pulled up in his blue mustang (wearing tight leather pants, a black mesh long-sleeved shirt and a blackish, reddish sleeveless jacket that went all the way down to his ankles) and drove himself, Gaara and D'gani to the party while Itachi took Haku, Sasuke brought Naruto and Nia drove Rai.

"Hi guys!" Kiba yelled when he saw them arrive, more or less together. "Glad you could make it! Nearly everyone else is here now, so you better hurry before we run out of spirits!" Kiba grinned wildly, grabbed hold of D'gani and Naruto's hands all but dragging them inside. As soon as Sasuke crossed the threshold, he was swarmed by partially drunk screaming girls.

"Argh!" Was all he managed to get out before they overwhelmed him. Naruto saluted Itachi and dived into the screaming horde to save his boyfriend.

"They are so weird," Itachi muttered to Haku before leading him off to the kegs set up at varying stages around the large house. D'gani just laughed before gasping and slapping his hands to his head.

"OH JESUS GOD NO!" He yelled at the top of his lungs, which was barely even heard over the music pumping in the background. "IT"S MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE!" he screamed once as he fell to the ground going into a foetal position. Neji looked very concerned at the strange boy's behaviour, but Gaara just laughed.

"He really hates emo music!" He said in Neji's ear before they started to move over to a keg. Surprisingly enough, it was not filled with beer, but with straight vodka. "That's strong!" Gaara rasped out as he took a sip. Neji nodded in agreement, his eyes watering. They continued mingling for a while, occasionally sipping and gasping at their drinks before they found themselves next to D'gani and Rai in front of the stereo. D'gani quickly flicked through the music collection and found only one CD he deemed worthy, Once More With Feeling, the best of Placebo.

"Come on, Rai!" D'gani begged his lover to dance with him. Rai just shook his head; he did not dance. "Fine! I'll have to dance with someone else!" D'gani walked over to Kiba and began to grind suggestively against him. Kiba looked surprised, but soon moved in time with the strange teen. The result was several girls passing out from blood loss from the nose.

"Okay. I'll dance with you," Rai said, pushing Kiba aside and dancing even dirtier than the Inuzuka, who just shrugged and moved off to dance with someone else. Just looking at the teens made Gaara blush. Neji decided to save him the embarrassment and quickly led him away. Unfortunately, the entire house seemed to be full of teenagers molesting each other.

"What kind of party is this?" Gaara asked as they passed yet another giggling pair, partly covered in saliva. Neji grabbed Gaara and fled up the stairs, but what they found up there was even worse. Every time they went to open a door, they were driven away by the moaning, gasping or smell of sex that seemed thick in the air. Gaara suddenly stopped Neji and whispered in his ear "Well, if you can't beat 'em. Join 'em." And licked Neji's jawbone.

"You serious?" Neji saw in Gaara's eyes that he was and they somehow quickly found an empty room. It was a bathroom. Neji pushed Gaara into the shower and began to feverishly remove his clothes as he kissed up and down his neck and chest. He groaned out in frustration as he tried to remove the mesh gloves.

"It doesn't matter," Gaara murmured huskily in his ear "Leave them on". He started to pull at Neji's clothes and successfully removed the jacket before accidentally hitting the shower button and water cascaded over them as Neji successfully pulled down Gaara's pants and Gaara ripped off Neji's shirt... (A/N: Ha! Thought you were getting a lemon, didn't you? Not yet, perverts! And for all you nice non-perverts, the lemon will be labelled and obvious. There will be a lemon, oh yes! There will be a lemon!)

The next morning, Gaara woke up in Neji's arms, in a bathtub. He had a dull headache from all the vodka and was nearly completely naked. He saw his clothes lying on the floor a little way away and moved to stand up but felt a stabbing pain up his spine (A/N: No prizes for guessing what that's from) This roused Neji, who pulled Gaara closer to him.

"I hurt you last night, didn't I? I'm sorry," Neji groaned, hugging Gaara tighter. Gaara smiled reassuringly.

"No, it's alright. It's just, it's a little cold to be lying naked in a bathtub and you have a broken leg," Gaara reasoned softly in Neji's ear. He gritted his teeth and stood up, ignoring the pain and fetched his and Neji's clothes before helping Neji to his feet, taking in the beautiful porcelain skin and hairless, well-shaped chest and stomach. The two got dressed and slipped downstairs. They were surprised to find that almost everyone was still there.

"Hey guys," Nia said, walking up to them blinking blearily. D'gani was sitting not too far away on a couch, his face tear-streaked. Rai was sitting next to him asking him what's wrong. Haku appeared behind Gaara and Neji, looking extremely happy and Itachi appeared a moment later.

"So," Neji began "How did everyone's night go?" He was greeted by a groan from Nia, a laugh from Haku, a withering look from D'gani and a heart-felt sigh from Rai. "Pretty well then?" Neji laughed as they all piled into their respective cars and headed home.

Last night: Nia

Nia walked away from her friends and over to one of the kegs which housed Jim Beam. After getting a cup and serving herself some bourbon, Nia wandered over to a couch and sat down, next to a boy wearing dark glasses.

"Hi!" She exclaimed "I'm Nia! And you are?" She held her hand out to the boy who shook it.

"I'm Shino," he said simply and the conversation progressed from there. After about fifteen minutes, Nia found herself being led over to the boys other friends in a room going off the living room. She was introduced to a girl named Hinata, Neji's cousin, a boy named Shikamaru and another boy named Chouji. They were passing around a very suspicious looking cigarette. When Nia took a puff, she realised it was pot. Well, that had never stopped her before so she continued getting stoned with Shino and his friends.

"Have you ever noticed what a weird word road is?" she slurred an hour or two later. "It's like ro-ad. Rooo aaaad. Ro-id. Rod. Rode. Wait, how do you say it again?" She giggled.

"It's like road," Shino said, amazed. Nia cracked up laughing.

"Oh my god! I like totally just forgot how to say that word! Hahahahahaha!" Nia rolled onto the floor, much to Hinata's amusement, who fell laughing on top of her. Chouji continued munching on something that looked vaguely like a raw potato. Shikamaru was lying on his face, completely still while Shino was holding his hands up in front of his face.

"Dude, my hands are huge!" Nia dragged Hinata back onto the floor laughing her head off, as she tried to stand up...

Last night: Sasuke and Naruto

Naruto somehow managed to drag his boyfriend out from under the pile of fangirls and pulled him away to where some people were taking shots of whiskey. Naruto convinced Sasuke to play a game with him and they sat down on either sides of the table.

"I'm gonna beat you so bad!" Naruto exclaimed as his shot was poured.

"We'll see, usuratonkachi," Sasuke replied coolly and the game began. It continued on for about forty-five minutes before Naruto passed out. Sasuke smiled "Victory is mine!" He gurgled out before passing out. Someone dragged him and Naruto over to a couch and put Naruto on top of him. Neither woke or moved for the whole night.

Last night: Haku and Itachi

After Haku and Itachi had gotten drinks from the keg, they made their way upstairs. They found an empty room and lay down to cuddle. "You know," Haku said after a few minutes "there isn't much point going to a party, if all you do is sit up in a room and cuddle. We do that every night". Itachi laughed and kissed Haku softly.

"Yeah but we don't usually have alcohol. Or the chance to be as loud as we want..." Itachi trailed off suggestively. Haku gasped slightly before giggling.

"You are such a pervert!" Itachi silenced him with a kiss and they got down to business. And they were loud. Very loud. So loud, in fact, that they didn't hear Gaara and Neji knock on the door before quickly moving away, shaking their heads and saying, "Perverts!"

Last night: D'gani and Rai

After dancing for the length of the CD, D'gani and Rai collapsed onto a couch, red-faced and sweaty. "I told you dancing is fun!" D'gani laughed. Rai pulled him into his lap.

"I can think of more fun things," he whispered softly in D'gani's ear before pulling his earlobe into his mouth. D'gani gasped. "Are you ready, baby?" Rai licked along his jawbone making D'gani moan softly.

"No... Rai, I can't," D'gani groaned. Rai continued his ministrations regardless of D'gani's half-hearted objections.

"Come on, D'gani!" Rai moaned huskily in his ear. "We've waited long enough!" D'gani gently tried to push him away but his attempts were ignored. Rai pulled the still slightly struggling D'gani to his feet and upstairs to an empty walk-in-closet (all the rooms were occupied) and started his long-awaited smutty boy sex. After they were finished, D'gani lay next to the already sleeping form of Rai and silently cried his way to slumber.

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A/N: Ooooh! Sad at the end! This is really a kind of character development chapter. I promise you'll find out who Gaara's mysterious attacker was soon. It was just time for me to put in some angst! Please review! Love you all! 

Remember, don't eat earwax and stay away from roasted cabbage. And Hugs not Drugs! .


	8. In a Land of Shattered Dreams

A/N: Okay! So now the angst is coming into it! This chapter isn't very long but I really like it. Now this story may be over soon. Like only have a few more chapters. I though i may as well update as I have no excuse not to, and all of the other stories I'm reading have been updated. Oh, and I'm sorry I haven't been replying to reviews but unless you ask me a question or say something interesting, I'll usually forget. Sorry!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or the song Henry Lee by Nick Cave.

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D'gani glared at his ceiling as his stereo blared out System Of A Down. The song was Toxicity and D'gani couldn't help but sing along and move slightly in time with the music. He hadn't left his room since the party, two days ago. The only time he ever went out was to get something to drink and go to the bathroom, usually at about 3:30am. The song finished and he didn't pay much attention to the rest of the CD as he took it out and put in Nick Cave's Murder Ballads. He had taken care of his anger, now he needed to wallow in misery for a while. As the song Henry Lee came on, D'gani heard Rai knock on his door and beg him to come out. D'gani ignored him as the song washed over him.

_Get down, get down, little Henry Lee  
And stay all night with me  
You won't find a girl in this damn world  
That will compare with me  
And the wind did howl and the wind did blow  
La la la la la  
La la la la lee  
A little bird lit down on Henry Lee  
_

D'gani let the tears flow freely as the words struck deep within him

_I can't get down and I won't get down  
And stay all night with thee  
For the girl I have in that merry green land  
I love fair better than thee  
And the wind did howl and the wind did blow  
La la la la la  
La la la la lee  
A little bird lit down on Henry Lee  
_

Rai heard the song through the door and sighed. This was not a good song for him to be listening to right now.

_She leaned herself against a fence  
Just for a kiss or two  
And with a little pen-knife held in her hand  
She plugged him through and through  
And the wind did roar and the wind did moan  
La la la la la  
La la la la lee  
A little bird lit down on Henry Lee  
_

D'gani mouthed along with the words, tears still silently pouring down his cheeks.

_Come take him by his lily-white hands  
Come take him by his feet  
And throw him in this deep deep well  
That's more than one hundred feet  
And the wind did howl and the wind did blow  
La la la la la  
La la la la lee  
A little bird lit down on Henry Lee  
_

D'gani stopped crying and sung along with the next verse, loud enough for Rai to hear, in the most hauntingly beautiful voice he could muster.

"Lie there, lie there, little Henry Lee  
Till the flesh drops from your bones  
For the girl you have in that merry green land  
Can wait forever for you to come home  
And the wind did howl and the wind did moan  
La la la la la  
La la la la lee  
A little bird lit down on Henry Lee," D'gani sighed as the music faded and he gently fell asleep. Rai moved away from the door, crying softly. How he wished he hadn't...

Gaara marched up the driveway purposefully and opened the door. He walked up the staircase and banged loudly on D'gani's door. "D'gani, open this door, right now or so help me god I will kick the shit out of it, even if it is garishly orange!" Gaara waited impatiently but received only two words in reply.

"Go away!" Gaara sighed. He really didn't want to have to do this, but it was the only thing that would work.

"I really didn't want to have to do this, but you've left me no alternative," Gaara yelled and began to sing My Chemical Romance. Loudly. The door was opened a minute later.

"You're such a bastard!" D'gani yelled "Now I'm going to have that song stuck in my head for ages! But, I suppose you may as well come on in," D'gani beckoned Gaara inside and quickly closed and locked the door.

"D'gani, what happened at the party?" Gaara asked carefully. D'gani looked away, but Gaara grabbed his chin and made him look at him. He saw a fear in D'gani's eyes and saw them flick once in the direction of Rai's room, then down at his crotch. "Oh, my god!" Gaara yelled "Rai raped you?" D'gani's eyes widened in horror.

"W- What are you t-t-talking about?" He stuttered out. How did Gaara know? He hadn't said anything. Did he somehow look as if he had been violated? Oh, god! Everyone would be able to tell and he would forever be labelled and pitied.

"Just now, you looked afraid, then you looked at Rai's room, then you looked down at your crotch and looked disgusted. What else could all that mean? I know you better than that," Gaara explained as he hugged D'gani and let him cry his eyes out on his shoulder.

"I told him to stop but he wouldn't listen," D'gani sobbed into Gaara's chest. Gaara pulled him tighter with one arm and with the other got out his phone to text Neji to come and pick them up. No way was D'gani staying in this house after what that asshole did to him.

"D'gani," Gaara said softly "I'm going to take you back to Haku's with me. You're going to stay there with me, okay?" D'gani nodded but still clutched Gaara close. After fifteen minutes or so, D'gani moved away and began to gather together his clothes and other necessities. Gaara walked down the hall to the bathroom to get D'gani's toothbrush. When he returned he found Rai standing in the room holding on to D'gani's arm.

"What do you mean, you're leaving?" He yelled, shaking D'gani's arm slightly. "You're not going anywhere!" Gaara rushed into the room.

"Rai, get the fuck away from him!" He shouted, pulling him away from the boy. Rai punched him in the face, making him bleed. Next thing, Rai was on the floor with D'gani on top of him, pulling his arms painfully backwards.

"How dare you?!" He screamed "After all he's been through! You fucking bastard!" D'gani punched Rai hard in the side of the head before climbing off of him. Nia ran into the room closely followed by Neji who had just arrived. Neji ran over to his lover, concerned anger covering his face.

"Gaara! What the hell happened?" He asked looking from the blood coming out of Gaara's nose to Rai lying on the floor with a great purple bruise on his temple to D'gani panting and looking with disgust at his ex-lover and back again.

"Nothing happened," D'gani replied dismissively. He walked over to his bag and continued packing. "Nia, I'm going to stay with Gaara for a while. If you want to meet up, I'll be happy to see _you,_" D'gani put heavy emphasis on that last word as he collected his toothbrush from Gaara and picked up his bag.

"I think we should take Gaara to the hospital," Neji stated. Gaara's nose was swollen, bruised and still bleeding. D'gani nodded and Neji led him and Gaara out of the house, after saying a quick goodbye to Nia. Gaara was diagnosed with a broken nose and given an ice-pack. When they returned to Haku's house and Zabuza saw D'gani's bags, he chuckled.

"Why is my house being turned into a youth hostel?" He asked good-naturedly. Gaara scratched the back of his head and blushed slightly. "That was a very good impression of Naruto!" Zabuza laughed harder at Gaara's look of revolt. "But we've run out of spare rooms, so you and Gaara will have to share. It's okay, there's another mattress in the wardrobe. We'll see about getting you a base later. I'll leave you to it then," Zabuza said as he strode away to do something or another.

D'gani was very clingy to Gaara for the rest of the week, much to Neji's annoyance. He decided to be patient though, the boy had been through a lot and Gaara _was_ his best friend. But no matter how hard he tried to be mature about the whole thing, he couldn't help but feel the teensiest twinge of jealousy. Gaara was constantly apologising with his eyes, but Neji was supportive. So when he and Gaara had been supposed to go on a date, he allowed D'gani to talk them into just renting DVDs instead. And he agreed to not hug or kiss or even hold hands in front of D'gani, in case it upset him. Thankfully at the end of the week, D'gani apologised and told them to go on a proper date; that he'd be fine. They of course accepted gratefully and went into the inner city and had coffee, before returning to Neji's house.

"Neji?" Gaara asked, staring into Neji's beautiful eyes as they cuddled on Neji's massive bed. "I'm sorry about the whole D'gani fiasco, but it's just that-" Neji silenced him with a gentle kiss.

"It's okay," he murmured softly, gently brushing his lips against Gaara's forehead. "I just hope that he recovers soon." Neji's voice turned slightly mournful as he whispered this.

"What did I do to deserve a guy as great as you?" Gaara asked and snuggled into Neji's neck. Neji just chuckled and the two fell into a comfortable silence, just enjoying the feeling of holding on to one another. Gaara's thoughts returned to D'gani. He had always wanted his first time to be with someone he truly loved. What Rai had done was unforgivable; destroying D'gani's meticulously crafted shield against what had happened to him years ago. If Gaara had been through hell with his father, then D'gani had been directly tortured by Satan. Gaara's father had never done anything of _that _nature. There had been a time when Gaara had despised the world and everyone in it, but then he had met D'gani and now the people he cared for had grown to a large crowd, at the forefront was Neji. Gaara's love. His dream had gone from wanting to destroy all life, to wanting to spend the rest of his life with another.

Gaara sighed and nuzzled into Neji's shoulder. As he felt sleep beginning to creep into his mind he hoped that this dream, this dream, would last forever.

D'gani stared at the photo of him and his childhood sweetheart as people called it. He gently traced his fingers over the figure holding onto his own twelve-year-old form. Bel. The name echoed emptily through his mind as he flew back to that night. When his father had attacked him; had _raped _him. Then the image of Bel pulling at his father came. Of the struggle of Bel being shoved too hard and falling against the window frame. Of his father shoving him once more and of Bel's lithe form disappearing into the dark of the night as he tumbled down three stories to hard concrete. Of hearing the sickening thud and cracking sound. Of being filled with an icy cold fury. Of grabbing his father with strength he didn't know he had and clutching his father's neck. Of throwing his father's corpse to the ground and curling into a ball and sobbing softly.

D'gani turned the photo face down and once again curled into a ball and cried himself to slumber in a land of shattered dreams.

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A/N: Okay! So that's the chapter! Please read and review! 


	9. Title inside

A/N: I'm so sorry I haven't updated in ages! But I do live in NZ and have school now. But I promise I'll update more often! Yeah I wouldn't trust me with that either...

Disclaimer: I do not own anything that is legally owned by anyone else. Everything else in the world, sure let's say I own all that crap.

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Hey Tenten, welcome to the fanfic. Hope you survive the experience.

The first week back at school was confused and resulted in no work being done until Friday. Gaara was so caught up in his worry about D'gani's first week and trying not to worry about D'gani's first week, that he barely noticed how disorganised the teachers were. His Performing Arts teacher informed them that they would be recreating a scene from a movie of their choice, in pairs, in front of their entire year. Gaara obviously decided to work with Neji and this resulted in them barely being able to restrain themselves from molesting each other several times on the teacher's desk.

"We should probably actually try to get some work done this period," Gaara said quietly to Neji when the teacher glared at their most recent bout of containment induced giggling.

"I guess you're right," Neji sighed and pulled out a piece of lined note-paper to write, yup you guessed it, notes on. "What movie should we do?"

"Have you ever seen The Princess Bride?" Gaara asked with a smirk.

"Yes! I love that movie! What scene do you want to do?" Neji replied, smiling lightly as possibilities announced themselves.

"The one at the top of the hill between Buttercup and Wesley? Just before the fire swamp." Gaara's question was answered by Neji grinning madly and writing some of the afore-mentioned notes, funnily enough, down on his note-paper.

After Performing Arts, during Lunch, Gaara and Neji decided to spend some time with Neji's friends for a change. Gaara couldn't help but wonder why Tenten was shooting him filthy looks the entire time, or why he found Deidara's laugh so familiar. He put the familiarity down to the one other time they had met, but he couldn't fathom what he had done to so deeply offend the brunette girl. Neji didn't seem to notice so Gaara ignored it too.

The rest of the afternoon passed uneventfully and after school Neji, Gaara, Haku, D'gani, Naruto and Sasuke decided to go out for milkshakes. Gaara contemplated D'gani's face as he sipped his lime milkshake slowly. His friend had been unusually subdued for the past two weeks and Gaara was worried that he might be depressed. Neji was staring at Gaara staring at D'gani while sipping his banana milkshake. His boyfriend had been so preoccupied by his friend's silence the past two weeks and Neji was slightly jealous of D'gani getting so much of Gaara's attention. Haku was silently observing Neji staring at Gaara while Gaara pondered D'gani while D'gani examined the window while he drank his vanilla milkshake through its white straw. Neji was so possessive of his redhead sometimes; it worried Haku that he might do something stupid because Gaara was paying such close attention to D'gani.

Amidst all the other's watching, Sasuke was wondering why only Naruto really seemed to be taking part in the conversation and why his friends were all staring at each other. He put it down to whatever had happened to D'gani that had made him break up with Rai and go to live with Haku. Naruto completely ignored the fact that he was being ignored and continued to have an animated conversation with himself. The boys returned to their respective homes after about half an hour more of the staring, worrying and rambling that had been their Friday afternoon.

Neji sighed when he got home. He decided to go onto his laptop to take his mind off of his boyfriend. Neji signed into windows live messenger and almost immediately was sent a message by Tenten.

Almostperfectgirl: Hey Neji

MessengerofFate: Hey Ten, how are you?

Almostperfectgirl: I'm good. How's u?

MessengerofFate: I'm okay I guess. I have a shitload of history homework to do though...

Almostperfectgirl: How bwt I cme ova 2moro and we do it 2getha? Unless ur busy...

MessengerofFate: No I'm not busy. Come over about 10ish?

Almostperfectgirl: Sure! I gotta go now. See u 2moro.

MessengerofFate: See ya!

_Almostperfectgirl has gone offline._

Gaara sat with D'gani after they got home, just waiting for the usually loud and happy boy to say or do something, _anything _to break through the heavy silence that encased the room in a dark cloud. But no sound came from the boy. No sign of life or feeling left the teenager, making Gaara gasp in exasperation and walk over to the stereo and put on a mixed cd he had made with D'gani the year before. The song Mulder and Scully by Catatonia started to play, evoking a reaction from the still boy. He turned to face the stereo with a strange face on but sang along.

"My bed is made for two and there's nothing I can do, so tell me something I don't know. My head is full of you, is there nothing I can do? Must we all march in two by two by two?" D'gani sung powerfully with tears running down his cheeks. As Gaara had suspected, the music had a much greater effect on the boy than his words ever could. D'gani crawled over to where Gaara was seated on the floor and pulled him into a tight embrace before whispering in his ear "Thank you. I needed to be reminded of what's truly important. I'm going to be fine now." D'gani gave Gaara one last squeeze before moving back to sing along to Head Like a Hole by Nine Inch Nails.

Gaara smiled at how his friend was now smiling and behaving normally again, or at least as normal as D'gani ever got. Gaara smiled and picked his book; Blood and Gold by Anne Rice. It was the fourth time he'd read it but Marius was his favourite character in the Vampire Chronicles so he felt justified in his mild obsession.

Neji laid back in his king-sized bed and wondered if he should be meeting Tenten tomorrow. But then he reasoned that Gaara would probably be busy fussing over D'gani and wouldn't mind not spending the day with Neji. Neji's cell phone beeped once, letting him know that its battery would run out soon. He supposed he had better recharge it but suddenly couldn't be bothered moving to get it. He suddenly heard a knock on his door and called out.

"Come in!" Hinata walked shyly into his room and bowed her head when she realised that Neji seemed to be already preparing for bed.

"Uh, N-N-N-Neji-niisan? I have a q-q-question t-to a-a-ask you." Hinata stuttered quietly. Neji couldn't imagine why he made the girl so nervous or how she could be so well-behaved and at the same time get stoned with her friends on a semi-regular basis.

"Yes, Hinata? What is it?" Neji asked in the kindest voice he could muster.

"How d-d-d-do y-you know if y-y-y-you l-l-like someone?" Hinata blushed a deep scarlet and wanted to just run out of the room apologising for being so stupid. However she was stopped by Neji's warm chuckle. It wasn't mocking or cruel, it was mere amusement that she would ask him such a question.

"It's been bothering you, huh?" Neji asked kindly and Hinata nodded her head slightly. Neji motioned her to come sit on the bed next to him. "So you think you might like someone, but you want to make sure before you act on it. Is that it?" Hinata nodded an affirmative again. Neji sighed and wondered how on Earth he was going to help the poor girl out. "Well," He began eventually. "How does this person make you feel?"

"He makes me feel like the only thing in the world that matters is us and our feelings. He makes me feel as if I were floating on a cloud. He makes me feel like I have rabid pelicans running rampant in my stomach." Hinata blushed profusely as she snapped out of her reverie and realised what she had just said. Neji looked very surprised. Not only had his cousin just said an entire sentence without stuttering once, she had just articulated exactly how Gaara made him feel.

"Sounds like you love him," Neji said with a smile. "And what you just said was lovely. You should write poetry." Hinata blushed even deeper at this praise and Neji's smile just widened. Hinata stared at Neji and his sincere smile for a few minutes before smiling a small smile herself and leaning forward and tentatively hugged her cousin.

"Thank you Neji-niisan. I hope you and Gaara-kun are happy together," Hinata whispered into her cousin's ear before abruptly leaving the room, still blushing severely. Neji grinned at how much more outgoing his meek little cousin had become in just that conversation. He once again leaned back on his large bed and thought of Gaara. He hoped they'd stay happy together too...

Gaara woke up late on Saturday and found D'gani lying next to him on D'gani's mattress that still lay next to Gaara's bed. How he had managed to find his way out of his own bed and onto D'gani's was beyond him but was glad that his friend didn't look mad. "Good morning, Gaara." D'gani smiled when he saw his friend was awake.

"Uh, D'gani? What happened?" Gaara's face took on a slight pink tinge as he imagined himself falling on top of D'gani in the middle of the night and crushing the poor boy.

"Well, this morning when I got up, you grabbed hold of my shirt as I turned around and muttered something about not letting Neji get away. I tugged lightly and you fell off your bed. As you were falling you muttered something that sounded a lot like "Oh my sweet Neji, what have I done?" Now where do you think that came from?" D'gani teased Gaara lightly, enjoying the embarrassed groan that escaped Gaara.

"Oh, god! I didn't!?" Gaara moaned into a nearby pillow.

"No, you didn't, but it would have been hilarious if you had!" D'gani cackled as Gaara hurled the pillow at him.

"You bastard!" Gaara cursed as he chased D'gani out of the room and down the hall, brandishing his pillow violently. He eventually pinned the other boy on the couch and began to tickle him to "death". "That'll teach you not to play tricks on people!" Gaara said dismissively, climbing of the giggling boy.

"If you say so, _Princess Buttercup_." D'gani giggled madly as this initiated yet another game of tag around the house.

Hinata answered the doorbell when it rung and was slightly surprised to find Tenten waiting on the other side. She politely showed Tenten up to Neji's room before quickly leaving. She never had liked Tenten very much.

"Oh, hey Ten." Neji greeted his friend when he answered Hinata's knock. "So, we should probably do the posters on our favourite artists first. Who have you picked?" Neji asked the girl as he pulled out some paper and felt-tip pens as well as some colouring pencils and some books about famous artists.

"I was thinking of doing Leonardo Da Vinci (A/N: how cliché). Who are you doing?" Tenten asked as she pulled out a book about her chosen artist.

"Friedrich. I love his paintings. Or maybe Caravaggio. His David and Goliath collection is amazing. But definitely something from around the Romanticism period of the Renaissance era." Tenten stared at Neji in wonder and was mentally squealing like the pathetic fangirl she is. Neji didn't seem to notice the stars in Tenten's eyes and instead turned around to start a rough plan of his poster.

"Wow, how do you know all that stuff about art?" Tenten's voice was filled with sycophantic undertones and the answer she received was definitely not one she wanted to hear.

"Gaara taught me all about it. He knows a lot about art and history. He also paints and draws and writes really well. I probably should have invited him to help us today. He knows enough about Leonardo Da Vinci to write his biography!" Neji didn't notice how stiff and angry Tenten had become. Nor did he remember to charge his phone.

"Come on! Pick up!" Gaara glared as he again only got Neji's answering machine. He couldn't even call Neji's home number because the boys had never seen it as necessary to exchange them. D'gani looked at Gaara for a few moments as the redhead angrily flipped his phone off and started pacing restlessly.

"Gaara?" D'gani tried. He was completely ignored as the redhead's pacing increased in velocity and area. "Gaara!" D'gani tried again, with as little effect as before. D'gani gathered all the power he had acquired from being the lead singer of a rock band and yelled at the top of his lungs. "GAARA!!!!!!!" Gaara jumped at the sheer volume of the small boy's voice.

"What?" Gaara stared bemusedly at his friend's look of exasperation.

"If you want, I will drive you to Neji's." D'gani replied, rolling his eyes and trying to be patient.

"Really? Thank you so much!" Gaara all but ran outside, followed by a chuckling D'gani.

Neji was busy on his poster. He had nearly finished it and was surprised to see that Tenten had barely started hers. "Having trouble thinking of ideas?" He asked her sympathetically. She shook her head slightly and leaned in closer. Too close. She pressed her lips against his as Gaara and Hinata walked into the room. Neji froze and Tenten exploited this moment to make the most of this opportunity. Gaara's eyes filled with tears and he turned and ran from the room, followed by Hinata. Neji had overcome his shock and shoved Tenten away from him. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!" He spat at her.

"You should be with me, Neji! A girl! Not some weird demon-freak _boy_!" Tenten wailed as Neji ran from the room after his love...

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A/N: Ooooooooh! A cliffy! Anyway, please read and review if you have any opinion of my story. Or don't. I don't want to be one of those authors that only updates id they get heaps of reviews. But I do love the reviews and they could potentially make what you want to happen come close to happening. Ah the shameless bribery! 


	10. Insipid Acid and Whitehot Pokers

A/N: Yay! A new chapter! Sorry it took so long but I had major's writer's block and most of this was written at 2 in the morning so if it's crap, that may be why. I was so close to not even bothering to continue this story cause I got some bad reviews, finally. But then I realised two things. 1: That I couldn't do that to my lovely reviewers and 2: Why should I listen to someone who doesn't use correct grammar/punctuation/spelling and has never uploaded a story of their own? So I shall continue regardless of what people say! Goodie!

Disclaimer: I still don't own Naruto or any other copy righted material. I only own 1 quarter of Ky's drawing abilities.

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Gaara rushed down the beautiful staircase that somehow seemed stale now, as if the white marble had turned a sallow yellowish grey to mark this day. In the foyer he was stopped by Hinata. "Gaara-kun! It's probably just a-," Hinata started but Gaara pulled away from her and continued out the door. She looked too much like Neji. The entire place screamed of Neji and he was suffocating in it. He had to get out. He had to get out!

Gaara stumbled over to D'gani's car and climbed inside just as Neji came through the front door and waved desperately to the redhead. "Gaara! Wait!" D'gani stared at Gaara's tear streaked face.

"What happened?" He asked looking from Neji's approaching figure to Gaara and back again. Gaara's eyeliner had smudged and ran in rivets down his cheeks, looking almost as if his face had large wobbly cracks slicing through it.

"Just go! Now!" Gaara screamed at D'gani and they pulled out of the Hyuuga estate just as Neji was almost at the car. Gaara closed his eyes. Images of Tenten touching Neji like that. Of their faces pushing together. Of the general wrongness of the situation. Gaara opened his eyes, unable to see those images anymore. They arrived back at Haku's house and Gaara ran up to his room, overwhelmed by his despair.

"Gaara?" D'gani poked his head around the door before entering and slowly closing it behind him. "Please tell me what happened." He walked over to Gaara's bed and sat next to him.

"She was kissing him! They were-,"Gaara choked and struggled on the words. "He was-," Gaara again had to pause to sob. "Kissing Tenten!" Gaara finally managed to choke out before bursting into a new bout of wracking sobs. D'gani's face went from stunned to disbelieving to fury to quiet realization. All of these were expressed with a single utterance.

"Oh," D'gani stated lamely before slumping slightly against Gaara. Neither spoke, and for several minutes the only sound was that of Gaara's choking sobs. Eventually D'gani broke the silence and Gaara was surprised to hear how hoarse his voice was. "It's not fair, is it?" He asked dismally.

"What isn't? This or life in general?" Gaara's voice was bitter, tarnished by the destruction of his apparent falsehood love.

"I thought that if you got it right. That if you could be happy and stay with Neji-," Here D'gani's voice broke and tears started to fall down his face like opaque rain. "That then I would have a chance to be happy too. That maybe one day, the past would be the past and we could be normal. But that'll never happen, will it? We're just destined to a life of unmitigated sorrow." D'gani couldn't talk anymore; his throat seemed to be clogged by his emotions and their inability to be articulated.

"I guess there is no happy ending like in the fairy tales. I swore that I wouldn't do this, that I would never allow hope to creep in. Because I knew this would happen. I knew that expectation only leads to disappointment." Gaara wiped his tears away as D'gani lay down next to him and buried his face in Gaara's shoulder. "Never leave me, D'gani. I couldn't stand it if I lost you too..."

Neji rapped three times on the door which was answered by Haku. "Sorry, Neji. Gaara doesn't want to see you." He stated firmly, his tone cold and emotionless. He stepped out onto the porch beside Neji and closed the door before ramming Neji up against it. "I warned you! I told you not to ruin this, Hyuuga!" Haku hissed and Neji still didn't even struggle in Haku's grip.

_---Flashback---_

"Neji," Haku said to the boy as he stopped him in the hallway on his way back to Gaara. "This boy's special. You need to be careful not to hurt him."

"Haku, why would I want to hurt Gaara?" Neji snorted at the older boy. "I really-." Neji began but Haku cut across him.

"It's not a matter of wanting or not wanting. Good intentions won't save Gaara's feelings. Gaara is the kind of person that if you hurt, you could be killed over. It would be the same as if someone were to hurt Naruto; they would be spat on and treated like dirt by the majority of people. They are the 'undislikables' as I have named them. You wouldn't get away with hurting them." Haku's tone was even but his stare was determined.

"Are you threatening me?" Neji asked incredulously. He couldn't believe that Haku would say something like that; it sounded like something out of a bad soap opera.

"No, I am warning you. Please just be careful, I won't be the one to hurt you..."

_---End Flashback--- _

"I never wanted to hurt him. I didn't mean to or want to, I mean I'm gay and I love Gaara so much it hurts. But I..." Neji cast around helplessly for his lost words as he began to cry softly, remorsefully.

"And I believe you. You're not to blame for this, or at least not all of it." Haku let Neji go before pulling him into a tight embrace. "But Gaara needs space right now so I think you should just let things be for now. I'll talk to D'gani about it; he knows Gaara better than we do." Haku whispered softly as he moved back off Neji and back towards the door. Neji nodded resentfully; he didn't like that someone knew Gaara better than he did and all this sitting around was killing him.

Gaara stared out the window at the cheery spring day and felt irrationally angry. The weather seemed to be mocking him with its false promises of good times. The sky should be a murky grey with sleet sleeting down on the pavement, harassing pedestrians. Not a forget-me-not blue with furling tufts of fluffy cloud and sunlight cascading down on the world. He sighed glumly and turned away from the window.

'_The most annoying thing,'_ he thought to himself _'Is that I can't even describe how I feel well enough to write a poem.' _He pondered the pain he felt in his heart for a moment. He got no words but more of a feeling. He wondered at that feeling for a while before deciding it was a being-jabbed-by-a-white-hot-poker kind of feeling. With underlying currents of an oh-joy-I'm-being-stewed-in-a-vat-of-insipidly-green-acid feelings. But he couldn't very well write a poem using those ridiculous compounds.

Gaara sighed again before realising that his brain had made a joke before. How dare he make jokes at a time like this?! Mentally groaning to himself about how utterly boring depression was as he could neither be bothered doing anything or allow himself to do nothing. He eventually decided to sleep. This plan was quashed by him being a terrible insomniac at the best of times. He tried to read his book but got annoyed within moments and threw it across the room then started crying when it upturned the vase that had been holding the bouquet of flowers that Neji had given him months ago and so the dried petals were now all over D'gani's bed.

"It's official," Gaara muttered to himself "I'm completely insane. Why does everything turn to shit?" He sighed once more, turned to the window and unwittingly started the whole process all over again.

It wasn't as if he could just focus his feelings into hatred for Neji, because he still loved him. He still loved him and that was why it hurt so much. How could Neji throw away all that they had for that girl? It wasn't right. He heard someone knock on the door and a few moments later, Naruto walked into the room. Gaara was surprised; the look on Naruto's face was terrible sorrow and Gaara hadn't even thought that they were exceptionally good friends. Naruto came and sat on the bed next to him.

"So it hasn't worked out, huh?" He asked Gaara softly in a strange tone of voice. "You lost him; your most precious person. Now, what are you going to do about it?" Naruto's voice sounded defiant and slightly angry as he stared Gaara straight in the eye.

"What can I do?" Gaara asked hollowly, his face expressionless from such pain. What could he do? There was nothing. Neji was gone forever and there was nothing Gaara could do! Gaara started to cry again and looked away from Naruto.

"Well, I guess Neji didn't matter that much to you then," Naruto stated derisively. "Because if you really cared, you'd do anything to have him back. You'd forgive him."

"What would you know about pain?!" Gaara asked angrily, glaring at the usually hyperactive blonde. Naruto's face went dark and Gaara was suddenly remorseful, why had his words been so venomous?

"More than you will ever know. Don't make the mistake of thinking that just because I smile and just because I'm hyper doesn't mean that I don't hurt like everyone else! I still feel pain! If you cut me, I bleed! I know pain, Sabaku! But I'm stronger than it! I won't just sit around and cry because, frankly, that's not going to do anything. Moping or crying isn't going to make you feel better or make life worth living. It just expends more of the little time you have to spend with the ones you love." Naruto's words cut through Gaara like a knife and he could only stare as Naruto stood up and started walking towards the door. "Time is ticking, Gaara. Don't be so pathetic and do something because the next time I hear that you're moping around like you don't have a reason to live, I'll kick your ass!" The old Naruto was back and he flashed Gaara a dazzling smile as he left the room and then the house.

Gaara sat back and mulled over what Naruto had just said. He obviously thought that he should forgive Neji, but how could he, after what he did? He broke the sacred trust and with it, Gaara's heart. Naruto had one thing right though, he couldn't just sit here doing nothing...

Monday back at school was difficult for Gaara. He managed to not cry during his classes or in front of anyone but this resulted in him wearing a perpetual glare that scared nearly everyone away from him. Not Sasuke however as his family were proud developers of powerful glares and seemed to be immune to its effects. Performing Arts was the worst class as he had to work in a pair with Neji to develop a scene. Gaara resolved to behave professionally and just do the work but as soon as he saw Neji, he could only just manage to get to the bathroom before bursting into tears. This was not going to work well. Gaara heard someone enter the bathroom outside of his cubicle.

"-and apparently the little fag's been crying ever since!" Deidara's voice rang out clearly as he laughed cruelly. Another male's laugh joined his but another boy's voice cut over him.

"You're a real prick, you know that?" the voice said, ringing with obvious distaste. "Why'd you do that? They weren't hurting anyone. It didn't even affect you."

"I did it because it's disgusting, Sasori. You're only all pissed off 'cause you like his cousin." Deidara's voice was contemptuous. Gaara heard the door open and close as the boys left. He wondered at what they had been doing in there as none of the cubicle doors had opened. He walked out of his cubicle to find the words: "Gaara is a useless faggot. If you see him, it is your civic duty to teach him a lesson." Gaara stared at the words for a few moments. They could not be a good sign. Now the entire male population of the school would be constantly trying to make his life hell. Just what he needed; more crap to deal with.

Gaara walked back to his Performing Arts class to find that everyone had gone outside to practice and only Neji was left indoors. Gaara stared at him for a few moments. It was too soon. He had no idea what to say. Neji simply stared at him, also at a loss for words. Then the silence was broken by the sound of the door swinging open to reveal several boys standing there.

"We know all about you being a queer, Sabaku." One of them said with a sneer. "We don't like that kind of trash at our school, do we boys?" He turned to the other boys in the group who were all shaking their heads in mock concern. The leader started towards Gaara and raised a fist but before it even got close to Gaara, Neji was there. He found that all his frustration and anger that had accumulated over the past two days had overwhelmed him and found violence to be a suitable outlet.

Even with Neji still recovering from a broken leg, the boys never had a chance. Neji had beaten them all back within moments and was panting angrily at them. For a moment, his eyes connected with Gaara's and all he wanted to do was to run to him and hold him and never let go. But, instead, he walked over to a chair and sat in it, muttering something as he did so. Although he had said it as barely more than a whisper, Gaara had heard it.

"Sorry." And with that one quiet statement, Gaara wanted to cheer, yell and cry all at the same time. But he did none of those things. He merely walked over to a seat away from Neji and sat down, staring at his shoes. He studied his laces for the rest of the period upon which, he gathered his things and left. He didn't look back so he had no idea that Neji was staring at him or that someone in the back of the hall had witnessed the entire scene from the back of the hall.

"I'm sorry they ruined it," the observer said, approaching Neji. His pale skin and youthful face gleamed in the shafts of light falling throughout the hall.

"Aren't you Sasori? And who's they?" Neji asked dully, his brow converging in a slight frown.

"Yes and they are Tenten and Deidara. What they did to him was just cruel. Do not allow them to go unpunished." Sasori turned abruptly at this and left the hall without another word, leaving Neji both uneasy and confused. _"What did Deidara have to do with anything?"_

Haku stopped D'gani in the corridor as he made his way to his next class. "Are you sure you can handle the Gaara part? He's not allowed to-." Haku was cut off by D'gani.

"I know Gaara. Don't worry. Everything will work out. I promise!" D'gani smiled weakly and started to walk away. He just wished he was really that confident. But then he had always had a kind of instinct with Gaara; where he knew just what to say or do just at the last moment. It was almost paternal. Now he had only to wait until Gaara was ready for what they had planned.

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A/N: Oooh! kind of a cliffy! Now I tried to include some angst in this one, I felt the story should have some XD! Okay, Please Read and Review. Ah gowan! Gowan gowan gowan! 


	11. A Mother's Love and a Good Friend's Song

A/N: Hello! I'm so sorry it took me so long to update but you guys are all awesome! Thank you so much for the reviews! They make me feel so happy! Anyway, I had a bit of trouble with this chapter so if it sucks, that's probably why. By the way, the poem at the beginning was written by me when I was nine! Aw! Little people trying to be poetic! (That's why it sucks)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or the song Listen To Your Heart by Roxette but this version is the DHT slow version. Or any other copyrighted material that may or may not feature in the following.

Enjoy!

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"Are there soul mates for the ugly?

Are there swords for the weak?

If there is a god, where is he?

Will we find him if we seek?

My love, the sin for which I'll burn,

Could earn me feathery wings.

If he were a maiden fair,

Complete with those girly things.

But then our lust would dissipate,

And our love could be no more.

So, for our love, I'll burn in hell,

Condemned by biblical lore.

How is it wrong to love?

And how on Earth can you tell?

Is it by sight? Or touch?

Perhaps determined by smell?

Who decides what's wrong or right?

And how the hell do they know?

What makes such an old book so good,

When I thought it sucked ages ago?

All these things I have pondered,

And thus this poem was made!

It may seem spiteful and sad,

And you may want it to fade,

But remember what you know,

About what is just and fair,

And think on what my poem says.

And may your perceptions clear!" D'gani finished reading his poem with a flourish and the class clapped uncertainly. They weren't quite sure what to make of that and so merely smiled and nodded, as their parents had taught them to do in such situations.

"Thank you, D'gani. The poem certainly was...opinionated," The teacher said as D'gani sat back down. Gaara just stared out the window. They had been supposed to work in pairs but he hadn't been paying any attention so D'gani had written the poem. Not that he complained. Gaara hadn't been doing any work at all recently, instead writing out Nightwish lyrics into his book or staring out the window. It had been two weeks since Neji had defended Gaara from the boys in the hall and neither had said a word to the other in the intervening time. They would have to soon though, as their performance of the scene from The Princess Bride would be that Friday. Neji was no longer in a cast, Gaara had noticed and felt a twinge of pain as he thought of the agreement they had made that when Neji got his cast off, he and Gaara would have sex in an even stranger place than a bathtub.  
The bell rang and Gaara slowly stood up and began to make his way over to the door but the teacher called him back.

"Gaara, is there something wrong?" She asked him concernedly. "You seem to be terribly depressed over something. What happened?" Gaara didn't look at her as he replied, as he had done for the past week, with a Nightwish lyric.

"All I wish is to dream again." Without another word, Gaara walked out of the classroom, leaving a concerned and somewhat bemused teacher in his wake.

Gaara and Neji faced each other in Performing Arts that day. They rehearsed their lines, Gaara monotonously and Neji with a miserable dejectedness. The class dragged on and on in such a manner until they were finally released from their torment. Gaara walked with D'gani, completely ignoring his friend. His other friends, unable to take his indifferent apathy towards everything, were now avoiding him. Even Haku made excuses at Gaara's approach. Gaara knew he deserved it and was sure that D'gani, too, would tire of his endless silence and cold demeanour. But his friend stayed with him and so they moved about in silence.

Gaara had in no way gotten over Neji, or even tried. He had instead distanced himself from his emotions entirely, in effect blocking all feeling more decidedly than the strongest of anaesthesia. With his emotions had gone his will to speak or even do more than move mechanically. Seeing his friend like this distressed D'gani to the point of him suffering from a perpetual migraine. Yet he continued to stand by Gaara and rarely left his side. He was so caught up with worrying about Gaara; he had completely failed to notice the letters that were piling up inside his locker. Each day another would appear but D'gani wouldn't even glance at it, too busy trying to get his books quickly so as not to let Gaara out of his sight. He somehow managed to fit practicing for his own performance with Sasuke around his near-constant supervision of the redhead. He was so stressed he had begun to lose his appetite and sleep. This couldn't go on.

Gaara, even through his distancing shield, was starting to get frustrated by D'gani's constant worrying. He didn't like to see his friend so cut up over anything. _Or_, a small voice in his head said quietly, _is it that you want him gone so you can be alone and do something to escape?_ He, as always, calmly pushed this voice back and ignored it. He was slightly concerned about D'gani's stress level as well. Sooner or later, he'd crack. Gaara didn't want that, regardless of how apathetic he seemed, he still cared enough for that small mercy. Perhaps he _should_ just try to escape...

Gaara walked down the stairs and into the bathroom to look at himself in the mirror. Instantly, he felt his shield begin to break down as if the mere sight of himself so cold reminded him of something...That was it! The empty look in his eyes, the dispassionate stare; he looked just like his mother had before she died. He sighed as a flood of memories came flooding back to him, making him almost physically stagger with the sheer force of them.

_Flashback_

Gaara stared as his mother completely ignored Kankuro's complaints that Gaara had kicked him before, to get out of having to take a bath. Karura just stared blankly past her oldest son and right through Gaara before uttering three simple words. "Gaara, come here."

"What is it, mum?" Gaara asked as he approached his mother's chair. She stood up and took hold of his little six-year-old hand.

"Come with me," She said with a smile and lead him up the stairs to her room. She closed the door and put Gaara up on the bed before walking over to her radio and putting it on, turning the volume up to its maximum. She then locked the door and sat next to Gaara, who, by this time had realised there was something wrong with his mother. The song Hurt done by Johnny Cash came on the radio and Gaara nearly had to shout to be heard over it.

"Mum! W-why is the m-music so loud?" Gaara asked his mother with a pleading look in his eyes. She just smiled a sad, lonely smile.

"Gaara, I want you to promise me that, no matter what happens, you'll always remember me. You'll always love me. You'll forgive me for what I'm about to do and you'll not hate your father for what he has done. Can you do that?"

Gaara nodded slowly and was about to ask a question but he was shushed by his mother. She then gave him a kiss on his left temple and got several things out from underneath the bed; a bowl with some strong-smelling disinfectant in it, a white bone with sharp teeth at one end, a white towel, a small hammer, some rubber gloves and a container with blood-red liquid in it. Karura pulled the gloves on and dabbed some of the disinfectant on the place she had just kissed, then readied the towel and picked up the bone and the small hammer.

"Stay still sweetie. It'll all be over soon." Karura whispered to her son as she dipped the bone's three points in the red ink and placed them at Gaara's disinfected skin. She brought the little hammer down on the bone, pushing the ink-covered points deep into Gaara's flesh. He howled with pain and tried to struggle but his mother just pinned him down with her body and continued her work, wiping away the excess ink with a rubber encased finger. Gaara cried silently as his mother meticulously tattooed the kanji "ai" onto her son's left temple.

With one last tap of the hammer, and wiping of fingers over unused ink, the character was complete. Karura sighed contentedly; now no one could take her Gaara's love away from her. "Gaara, this letter "ai" symbolizes the love you must have for me, for yourself and for your family. It should remind you of what's important, whenever you seek guidance. I'm sorry and I love you. Never forget that." Here she paused to hug him tightly. "Now, Gaara, I want you to go downstairs and take that bath that Kankuro wants you to. I think I'll have a little nap." Gaara, very much confused, climbed off the bed and went down to Kankuro who hugged his younger brother close. Neither said a word about the tattoo on Gaara's head. Half an hour later, Gaara went upstairs to find himself unable to wake his mother.

The next day, Gaara's father told him that she had had a stroke, but the look in his eyes told Gaara that he was lying. Gaara had known something was wrong as soon as his mother had refused to let him have a sip of her hot chocolate, the day before. At the funeral, Gaara didn't shed a single tear. His pain was beyond tears, they seemed a far too superficial way to express his loss. He instead sat in front of her grave, everyday after school, for three years.

_End Flashback_

Gaara shuddered at the remembrance of such things. He stared once more at the mirror and thought about how easy it would be for him to end everything the way his mother had. How simple it would be to just go get Zabuza's sleeping pills and run away from all his problems. So easy. Far too easy. Why had no one thought that Gaara might try something like that? Or was it that they just didn't care? Caught by this new thought, Gaara opened the medicine cabinet and pulled out the packet of little white capsules. Neji didn't love him anymore. None of his friends cared enough to try to stop him or even be around him. His siblings hadn't called in weeks. His father hated him. His mother had killed herself rather than spend anymore time with him. There was just nothing left. Just as he was about to pop the first pill out of its packaging, he heard someone playing the piano in the living room. Singing soon followed.

"_I know there's something in the wake of your smile._

_I get a notion from the look in your eyes. Yeah._

_You've built a love, but that love falls apart._

_Your little piece of heaven turns to dark. _

_Listen to your heart, when he's calling for you._

_Listen to your heat, there's nothing else you can do._

_I don't know where you're going, and I don__‎t know why._

_But listen to your heart, before you tell him goodbye"_

Gaara stared at the pills in his hand as D'gani's voice surrounded him with its ethereal beauty. His eyes flicked up to the mirror and caught sight of the "ai" tattoo. This was wrong.

"_Sometimes you wonder if this fight is worthwhile._

_The precious moments are all lost in the tide._

_They're swept away and nothing is what it seems,_

_A feeling of belonging to your dreams._

_Listen to your heart when he's calling for you_

_Listen to your heart, there's nothing else you can do_

_I don't know where you're going, and I don't know why_

_But listen to your heart before you tell him goodbye."_

Gaara stumbled into the living room and watched D'gani's talented fingers dance across a checkerboard of keys as he played the instrumental part of the song. Tears began to stream down Gaara's cheeks unbidden as he pictured Neji. No Tenten this time. Just Neji. He hadn't been able to do that since _it_ had happened.

"_And there are voices that want to be heard._

_So much to mention, but you can't find the words._

_Listen to magic, the beauty that's been._

_When love was wilder, than the wind._

_Listen to your heart, when he's calling for you._

_Listen to your heart, there's nothing else you can do._

_I don't know where you're going, and I don't know why_

_But listen to your heart, before you tell him goodbye. _

_Listen to your heart, mmm mmm._

_I don't know where you're going, and I don't know why_

_But listen to your heart, before you tell him goodbye."_

Gaara walked over to D'gani and hugged him as the music faded. "Thank you." He whispered. He felt so much better. He had faced his emotions... and survived. Maybe now, thanks to a mother and a best friend's love, he could find the strength to forgive him. Neji.

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A/N: Okay, so I'm sorry it's so short but at least I updated! It's a little crappy, but I like it for some reason. Anyway, I promise it'll get happier soon! Please review! I'll give you a...Yeah no I have nothing. I'll steal Kagurazaka from Rikkls and whoever writes the longest review can have him! Hides from scary Rikkls It's not nice to attack your Baa-chan! 


	12. With Eyes Like The Sea After A Storm

A/N: w00t! Another chapter! And I'm sorry if it seems like I'm rushing things but I'm too impatient to draw it out too much longer. And I had to write something happy for the story, so here it is! Hope you like it!

Disclaimer: I own nothing. NOTHING!!!!! Nothing? Nothing, nothing tra la la? I love Labyrinth

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D'gani slumped into the couch with relief after Gaara had gone to bed. What a day! D'gani smiled at the thought of how he had managed to avert such a disaster; Gaara had confided in him that he had been contemplating suicide before D'gani's song stopped him. He hoped that Gaara would follow his advice, and talk to Neji at least. The guy deserved that much. Then it was up to Neji...and Haku. D'gani had already played his part in the grand scheme they had devised; stop Gaara from doing anything stupid and get him to speak to Neji properly. Well, it hadn't been easy, but he had done it.

He rubbed his head as the aftershocks of the most recent, hopefully last, stress-induced migraine receded. Why his brain had to be so god-damned sensitive he would never know. He sighed a tired sigh and went up to the bedroom he shared with Gaara and stared at the peacefully sleeping boy. Gaara's face was so serene when he slept, as if nothing was wrong and everything would work out amicably. D'gani brushed a few stray locks from Gaara's calm face with his right hand before getting undressed and climbing into his own bed; he had finally gotten a base for it the week before. Everything would now work itself out, or so he hoped as he switched off his bedside lamp and closed his eyes, drifting away into the most peaceful slumber he had experienced in two weeks.

When Gaara woke on Wednesday morning, he found in himself a resolve that had not been there before. He would talk to Neji today or die trying. He got up and dressed in his school uniform and walked downstairs to see Zabuza just rushing out the door and had to stifle his laughter; the man looked so ridiculous in the suit he wore to work. He was a lawyer and so had to dress formally, but he still somehow looked wild. D'gani was sitting at the table in his uniform, glaring at the wall. "Uh, did that wall do something to piss you off, or do you just morally oppose cream wallpaper?" Gaara quipped as he sat down next to the strange boy.

"I have the most annoying song stuck in my head. It won't go away like they usually do, it just repeats over and over again! Oh and the wallpaper is actually very complimentary to the dark mahogany table." D'gani replied, now glaring at his toast as if it had just tried to kick a puppy. Haku walked in at that moment, looking amazed.

"My god, Gaara. Did you actually just make a joke? You did! Don't try to deny it, I heard you! Oh welcome back my sweet little raccoon-chan!" Haku hugged Gaara affectionately before walking into the kitchen proper and pouring himself a glass of orange juice made by the brand "Squishyfied!"

"Are you high?" Gaara asked, suspiciously eyeing the terribly suspicious orange juice in the horribly suspicious glass with the hideously auspicious flowers on it.

"No, but it's just been announced that the theme for the school ball this year is Masquerade (A/N: I'm so proud of myself for spelling that right when I was talking to my mother and drinking a smoothie whilst typing solely with my left hand behind my back! I wonder if there's a profession that specialises in that...?) and your year is invited too! It's going to be absolutely marvellous, ne?" Haku replied with a dreamy look in his eyes as he sipped his still-suspicious orange juice from its still-suspicious glass with the somehow-less-auspicious flowers on it. Gaara and D'gani just exchanged slightly terrified glances. They were gay too, but they weren't quite _that_ gay (or so they liked to believe, inside they were squealing like rabid yaoi fangirls after seeing an official SasuNaru porno movie poster).

"Anyway," Gaara said with a sidelong glance at Haku who was now muttering to himself about pink and purple Kimonos and where he might have left them. "What scene are you and Sasuke doing for Performing Arts?" He asked as he turned to face D'gani, shutting out the soft ramblings of a ball-obsessed Haku.

"Oh I couldn't bear to ruin the surprise for you!" D'gani exclaimed in mock-horror before standing up, turning, patting Gaara on the head and walking out of the kitchen and through the front door. Gaara and Haku soon followed him and they were off to school, and Gaara was one step closer to speaking with Neji.

D'gani was still suffering from his musical torture when they arrived at school but his reaction to opening his locker was most comical. Upon being opened, a great tsunami of envelopes surged out and Gaara had the strangest sense that, had D'gani's shoes been animate, that they would've screamed something along the lines of: "Oh dear god! I'm gonna bleed to death from a paper cut because my idiot owner doesn't read his fanmail!" D'gani picked up an envelope at random and opened it to find song lyrics written in neat cursive with a note that said: "Oh damn! I seemed to have been overcome by the all-consuming despair commonly known as love." He handed it to Gaara in amazement before progressing through the rest of the letters to find lyrics for every day of the past two weeks along with a different little saying, though every time it related to love in some way.

"What the hell are these?" He asked in total confusion. Gaara blinked once, twice before replying.

"How can you be so naïve that you don't recognize that you're being sent loveletters? And not just any loveletters, this guy seems to write lyrics for each and every single one. I wonder who it is..." Gaara's reply started out as exasperated but turned into pensive as he considered this new possibility. "It could be anyone. A girl even."

D'gani looked horrified by this. Imagine having a female stalker! It was one of his worst nightmares. "Hmmmm...Well, I'll just have to use the process of elimination. Sounds simple enough." He shrugged and piled the letters neatly into his bag.

"Uh, how exactly are you going to eliminate people?" Gaara asked as they walked down the hallway. D'gani stopped and surveyed Gaara's face.

"Gaara," he said sternly. "I studied psychological analysis for most of my life; do you really think that I can't figure out who's in love with me? It's very simple, observe. The one who likes me will not look at me, if I look at them, but once I look away will stare. They'll be embarrassed around me and either act gallant towards me, or try to avoid speaking to me." D'gani strode down the corridor, directly in the middle so that anyone walking past would have to look at him. Soon after, a pale boy with dark hair and lean frame walked past him, turning his head away slightly and not looking at D'gani. Once past him however, the boy stared at D'gani and stopped walking altogether.

"Aha!" D'gani yelled and leaped back to the boy leaning in close before backing off and holding out his hand. "Hello, there!" he said happily and the boy replied, shaking his hand.

"Hello! You look like you have a sizeable penis!" D'gani was somewhat taken aback by the bluntness of the boy, but put that aside for the sake of his experiment. What was more gallant than mentioning another's genitals in the first conversation you've had with them?

"Thank you, I suppose. I'm D'gani, by the way, what's your name?" D'gani replied as calmly as he could.

"I'm Sai. Wanna be friends?" He asked in an almost childlike fashion. D'gani thought for a moment before performing the test that he had only used on Gaara and Rai before.

"What is the best part of the song Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen and why?" D'gani asked, his eyes narrowing.

"Uh... "I see a little silhouetto of a man. Scaramouche, scaramouche will you do the fandango? Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very frightening me. Galileo, Galileo, Galileo, Galileo, Galileo Figaro (magnifico). But I'm just a poor boy and nobody loves me. He's just a poor boy from a poor family. Spare him his life from this monstrosity. Easy come easy go, will you let me go? Bismillah! No, we will not let you go! Let him go! Bismillah! We will not let you go! Let him go! Bismillah! We will not let you go! Let me go. Will not let you go! Let me go. Will not let you go! Let me go! No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Mama mia, mama mia, mama mia let me go! Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for me? So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye? So you think you can love me and leave me to die? Oh baby! Can't do this to me baby! Just gotta get out! Just gotta get right outta here! Nothing really matters. Anyone can see. Nothing really matters, nothing really matters to me." And it's the best because it's on Wayne's World." Sai replied slightly uncertainly. D'gani hugged him.

"I'll definitely be your friend! Not only did you get that right, but your voice is really good!" D'gani exclaimed as he walked with Sai off down the corridor, leaving Gaara smiling and slowly shaking his head in his wake. He sure did have some weird friends...

Performing Arts hated Gaara, he decided as the teacher surveyed him and Neji as they practised their performance. She had decided that they needed help getting their performance together in time for Friday and so was leaning over them. "No, no, no!" She exclaimed after they had each said their lines. "Do it again but this time with feeling! Be the character! Feel their emotions!" Gaara was feeling some very powerful emotions right now that all seemed to end in the teacher's imminent death if he acted on them but he tried anyway.

"He died well, that should please you. No blubbering or pleading. He simply said "please. Please I have to live." I asked him what was so important. Then he spoke of a woman of unsurpassable beauty, I can only assume he meant you. I'm only glad that he died before he found out what you really are." Neji said with as much vehemence as he could muster, which wasn't a lot.

"And what am I?" Gaara responded with all the gusto he had.

"Faithfulness he spoke of, madam, your enduring faithfulness. Now tell me, did you marry your prince in the same hour or wait a week out of respect for the dead?" Neji said with more power, inspired by Gaara's willingness to try.

"You mocked me once, never do it again! I died that day!" Gaara exclaimed, standing up as his role required. Neji turned around as he was meant before Gaara's next line. "And you can die too for all I care." Then he shoved him down the hill (they were practicing outside for this reason).

"Aaaaaaassssss Yoooooouuuuuuu Wiiiiiiiiiiissssshhh!" Neji called as he rolled down the hill.

"Oh my sweet Neji, what have I done?" Gaara moaned before throwing himself down the hill after Neji. Then they were united as they kissed.

"Why didn't you wait for me?" Neji asked brushing Gaara's hair back.

"Well, you were dead." Gaara replied softly.

"Death cannot stop true love; all it can do is delay it for a while." Neji uttered the final line as they kissed once more. They were interrupted by the teacher clapping.

"Oh bravo! Bravo! Truly excellent! So passionate! I almost believed that you two were together! Do that exactly on Friday!" She then moved off, looking for some other innocent victim to prey on. Gaara stared into Neji's beautiful eyes and Neji continued to stroke Gaara's hair.

"Oh, uh, do you want to practice that again? I think there's enough- mmm!" Neji was cut off as Gaara pulled him back down into a passionate kiss. Neji's eyes widened in surprise before closing in pleasure as Gaara's talented tongue flicked over his own. They eventually broke apart for air.

"I missed you so much! And I'm sorry that- nghhh!" This time Gaara was cut off by Neji kissing him.

"No, I'm sorry!" Neji said when they broke for air. "I'm sorry that I didn't recharge my phone so that you could get hold of me. I'm sorry I didn't tell you that Tenten was coming over to do homework. I'm sorry I got jealous of you looking after D'gani. But I'm the most sorry that I didn't even try to explain this to you. Please don't hate me! I don't think I could bear it if you..." Neji trailed off and Gaara smiled.

"I don't hate you, moron. I love you!" Gaara grabbed Neji's neck and pulled him down into a bruising kiss that was interrupted by an extended "Awwwwwwww!" from somewhere behind them. They looked up in time to see D'gani and Sasuke running away and...giggling. Sasuke was giggling?

"Am I insane or was Sasuke just giggling and running with D'gani?" Neji asked with a look of sheer amazement on his face. Gaara shrugged and pushed Neji gently and they both stood up and hugged until the bell signalling the start of the next period sounded.

At lunch, Haku, Sasuke, Naruto, D'gani and the newcomer, Sai, clapped at Neji and Gaara's approach, receiving many strange looks from the nearby students, not that they cared. Conversation eventually moved away from Neji and Gaara's spectacular reunion and over to Sai.

"So, Sai, I've never seen you before, are you new?" Haku asked the raven boy interestedly.

"Yes. I started two weeks ago. My nickname for you is: Pansy." Sai replied evenly before pointing to Sasuke. "Yours is Duckie. Yours," Here he pointed to Gaara. "is Raspberry. Yours is Bleach." He stated with a smile, indicating Neji. "Yours is Red," he said to D'gani and then turned to Naruto. "Hmmmm...I'm not sure whether to call you Little-dick-man or The-boy-with-the-vanishing-penis. Which do you like better?" That may very well have been the last thing Sai ever said if it hadn't been for D'gani pinning Naruto down while Sasuke restrained Haku. The bell signalling the end of lunch tolled conveniently, saving Sai once more. Neji turned to Gaara.

"Do you wanna come over to my house after school today? We can practice for the performance on Friday and..._stuff._" He put a very seductive emphasis on the last word, making Gaara shiver.

"Sounds...productive," Gaara replied, kissed Neji then caught up with D'gani. It was at that time that he remembered what he had forgotten to ask that morning in the kitchen. "Hey, D'gani," He said "What was that annoying song that was stuck in your head this morning?" D'gani turned to him and replied with gritted teeth.

"It's This Kiss by Faith Hill and it's still in my head. And I don't know why, seeing as I absolutely despise it and the last time it was in my head was when I met Bel. Weird, huh?" Gaara was so surprised by this comment that he stopped dead in his tracks. Not once had D'gani ever mentioned Bel without crying and yet here he was...Maybe D'gani had finally recovered from that awful past. Maybe everything would be okay now.

But what Gaara didn't know was that there was a message on his cellphone that would change his entire life forever...

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A/N: Oooooh! Cliffy at the end! And next chapter shall be the lemon! Bohahahaha! So, whaddya think? Good? Crap? By the way, I didn't check the Princess Bride lines so if they aren't right, please don't hate me! Oh and Review! Please? 


	13. Sunshine Before Lightning

A/N: I'm so sorry for the long wait, but here is the LEMON!!!!!! Finally! And be warned, it is very explicit. Or at least for and me it is. So tell me if you like it or not. Also the end may shock a few of you.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or anything else anyone else owns.

Warning: This chapter contains sex between two males and bondage. Oh and extreme embarrassment and OOCness.

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Gaara sighed contentedly as Neji drove him towards the Hyuuga estate. Everything felt so...right. The smell of the inside of the car, the feel of the leather behind him, the lingering taste of mint from his kiss with Neji, the flickering burn of arousal in his flesh. This was what it should be like. He had certainly felt the loss of Neji heavily, but he had never appreciated just how much he needed that long-haired, silver-eyed lily of a boy. He giggled slightly at the fact that he had just likened Neji to a flower and as he imagined his boyfriend (oh god it was so good to be able to call him that again!)'s reaction to such analogies. "What's so funny?" Neji asked curiously, glancing out of the corner of his eye at his beloved red-headed, jade-eyed rose of a boyfriend. 

"Oh, nothing. Just a random thought," Gaara replied happily, smiling easily at Neji before turning the radio up louder. Today by Smashing Pumpkins came on. Gaara sung quietly along as they continued to drive. "Today is the greatest day I've ever known, can't live for tomorrow, tomorrow's much too long. I burn my eyes out, before I get out." Neji smiled at his redhead as they pulled up in front of the Hyuuga estate.

"So, do you want to do homework first or-" Neji was cut off as Gaara grabbed him and kissed him with all the fervour and passion he had.

"I think I like the second option," Gaara responded with a slight smirk. Neji grinned back and the two of them made their way into the house. Neji was about to walk up the stairs to his room but Gaara grabbed his hand and led him off to one side, in the direction of the kitchen. "You promised me kinky, now deliver!" Gaara teased his boyfriend who now found it appropriate to pick him up in a fireman's lift and lightly pat his backside as he carried him into the kitchen and placed him gently on the countertop.

"Don't worry; you'll get your kinky!" Neji smirked at his lover before kissing him and unbuttoning Gaara's school shirt. Gaara moaned excitedly as Neji angrily undid his tie and wrapped it around Gaara's wrists, securing them together. He then undid his own tie and used that to tie Gaara's hands to one of the supports of the counter. "Kinky enough for you?" Neji asked with a smirk. Gaara had kicked his shoes and socks off before and now wrapped his legs around Neji's waist and pulled him in closer, needing more contact and closer proximity.

"Not even close," Gaara replied saucily (A/N: Gyaha! I've always wanted to use that word in a story before...w00t!) and used his feet to un-tuck Neji's school shirt then slipped under it, lightly scratching his spine with his toenails. Neji groaned and unbuttoned his shirt. He was about to take it off fully when Gaara stopped him with a growl. "No time for that!" the little redhead flicked his hips back against Neji's, letting the brunette know he wanted sex and he wanted it now.

!-------LEMON-------!

Without further ado, Neji rapidly unfastened Gaara's school trousers, pulled them off and threw them away. They landed unceremoniously in a crumpled pile on the ground and were soon joined by Gaara's boxers. Neji undid his own pants and was about to push them down and off when Gaara bucked his now-bare hips against Neji again. Neji nodded and pulled his throbbing member out of his boxers. "Wow," Gaara said, smirking. "You really _have_ missed me!" However, he was hardly one to talk; he hadn't been this hard before in his entire life. Neji, having decided that Gaara was far too sexy for his own good, leant forward and engulfed Gaara's erection with his warm mouth. Gaara gasped; he had forgotten how _good_ this felt! Dear god! If he wasn't careful, he'd climax before they'd even started! Just as Gaara felt his end build, Neji removed that beautiful, moist cavern and positively cackled as Gaara thrashed his head and groaned at being left unsatisfied.

"Who's missing whom now?" Neji asked evilly, lightly stroking Gaara's testicles. Gaara kicked him lightly with his free leg. Neji just laughed. "If you're not careful, you're going to break the ties around your wrists, thrashing around like that." Neji giggled in perverted humour, before Gaara's naked legs encircled themselves around Neji's neck and pulled him in close enough for Gaara to kiss him.

"You talk dirty like a six year old Catholic girl," He muttered in the brunette's ear, after licking the lobe seductively. Neji nearly choked at this but Gaara bit his neck, hard enough to leave a mark. "Less talking, more preparation. We don't want to get _caught_, do we?" the way Gaara had said the word made Neji go positively wild. He reached behind Gaara and grabbed the bottle of almond oil Hinata had conveniently left there. He showed it to Gaara who purred in delight at having actual lubricant. Neji carefully uncapped the bottle and poured copious amounts onto his right hand, before moving down to circled Gaara's entrance with his index finger. He slowly inserted the digit and Gaara grunted in mild discomfort.

"Are you okay?" Neji asked concernedly, not moving the finger in case it hurt the redhead more. Gaara squirmed slightly.

"Yeah. Keep going, but move around a little more or else it'll just hurt," Gaara replied, closing his eyes in discomfiture. Neji did as he was bid, but also put down the almond oil bottle and started stroking Gaara's erection with his left hand. Gaara's breathing became laboured as he became accustomed to the finger inside him and the pleasure pulsing from his erection sending shockwaves through his entire body. After a minute or two of this Neji tentatively inserted another finger and again, Gaara squirmed and grunted in pain. However, it took less time for him to adapt to this finger and not long after, Neji added a third.

"God," Neji groaned softly as Gaara convulsed reflexively when his fingers lightly brushed his prostate. Gaara smirked and panted a little before replying.

"Yeah? I'm listening." Which Neji responded to with laughter, circling the fingers and slowly thrusting them in and out of Gaara. Gaara suddenly cried out as Neji deliberately rubbed two of his fingers against Gaara's sensitive gland. Neji grunted his approval before pulling his fingers out and once more picking up the almond oil, this time spreading it along his smooth shaft and over the head of his pulsating organ.

"You ready, Raspberry?" Neji asked, using Sai's nickname for Gaara just to annoy him and because this was about the only time he could. Let's face it, Neji's fair whipped by little Gaa-chan.

"Ready when you are, Bleach," Gaara responded evenly. _"But could you be a bit quick please?"_ He added mentally. Neji smiled and thrust quickly and effortlessly into Gaara's hot cavern. "Fuck!" Gaara yelled eloquently, Neji was equally articulate in his exclamation of:

"Gnghaawaa!!" Which may or may not have meant to be Gaara's name. Neither boy particularly cared about such trivial matters right now; all that mattered in the world was that they keep up this incredible state of pleasure. Neji thrust into Gaara at a rate that should be humanly impossible. Gaara bucked back even faster. Were someone to look in on the situation, they would see only two, graceful, pale blurs, moving in perfect synchronisation. This was exactly the sight that met Hinata's innocent eyes as she opened the door to the kitchen, quickly closing it again. Her father had just picked her up from school and would be on his way to the kitchen any moment now. It was up to her to stop him walking in on his nephew and Gaara. Hinata's hand clenched in determination and fear as she realised she would have to distract her father. She knew of only one way to do that. She ran into the entrance hall and caught Hiashi as he was heading in the direction of the kitchen.

"Father," Hinata said, taking a deep breath and preparing herself for the most embarrassing conversation of her young life. "Where do babies come from?" She blushed furiously as her father stared blankly at her.

"What?" Hiashi asked, sure he had misheard his daughter.

"I asked w-where babies c-come from. B-because m-mother died w-when I was s-so young, s-she never t-told me and I never w-wanted to b-bother anyone w-with it," Hinata replied, staring at the ground. Not only was she lying through her teeth to her father, this was the only topic she had been able to think of.

"Uh...well...I...uh...maybe you should come up to my study, this could take us a while," Hiashi replied, with a slight blush evident on his own cheeks. Hinata followed her father silently, willing any god that was listening to be kind to her this day.

Meanwhile, Rocky and Bullwinkle struggle in the trap set by Igor. Wait, what? Oh, whoops! That was an entirely different story. Anyway...

Gaara thrashed his whole body in time with Neji's violent thrusting. Both were holding on for dear life, determined to not be the first to cave and find sweet, sweet release. Gaara tensed his muscles to make Neji orgasm but the brunette held strong, barely. Neji was now not just thrusting but rolling his hips so that his erection's tip grazed roughly against Gaara's severely abused prostate. Gaara continued thrashing backwards, making the wooden support he was tied to creak ominously. Neji was only holding on by thinking of disturbing images; like big round breasts. It was barely working. Gaara suddenly tensed his entire body and pulled Neji in tight with his legs. Neji sighed contentedly and released his seed into Gaara. It was then that Gaara finally broke the wooden support, brought his hands up and looped them around Neji's neck, pulling the other boy into a passionate kiss as Gaara climaxed for real this time. Neji looked down, surprised as Gaara's semen spurted out all over their stomachs.

"You tricked me," Neji said weakly. Gaara just smiled happily as Neji pulled out of him, before getting paper towels and dampening them to clean off the cum from his and Gaara's chests, stomachs and thighs. Gaara meanwhile was struggling with the ties.

"What the hell are these things made of?" He demanded furiously, glancing at the splintered wood and the tightly knotted material around his wrists. Neji helped the redhead untie his bonds and the two of them slowly redressed, exhausted but terrified at the prospect of being caught. They managed to get fully clothed and tidied the kitchen, reattaching the broken support with elephant glue. When they were finished they left the kitchen to go upstairs to Neji's rooms. As they walked past Neji's uncle's study they heard his voice saying something that sounded a lot like: "And then there's this thing called the cervix..." but it couldn't have been something that strange.

"So, what do you want to do now?" Neji asked as he and Gaara sat on his bed, Gaara gently twirling his hand through Neji's hair. Gaara shrugged and was about to answer when the door burst open and Hinata came striding in.

"What on Earth were you thinking?!" She hissed at them. She was panting and still blushing furiously from her talk with her father. "Doing that where anyone could see! I had to cover for you and then the only way I could think of to distract father was to ask him _where babies come from_! Do you know how _embarrassing_ that was?! _And_ he was terrible at explaining it as well! _What_ is so funny?!" Hinata demanded furiously at the end of her reprimand as, by this stage both Gaara and Neji were lying on the bed giggling at Hinata's misfortune. She was glaring at them for several seconds before joining in herself and coming over to the bed to beat the two boyfriends over the head with pillows. "Oh! I still can't believe you did that! What could have possessed you to- no! I don't want to know!"

The rest of the evening was spent with Hinata, who, when she wasn't stuttering and being shy, was actually very outgoing. She had just never had a suitable outlet for all her emotions before. Haku would say she really needs to get laid, but Gaara would say that she needs a boyfriend to complain to. Around nine o'clock, Neji dropped Gaara off at home. Gaara chose this time to finally check his phone. He found a voicemail message for him from his sister. He called the number and followed the directions as D'gani pestered him for details. His sister's voice rang out clear as a bell.

"Hey, Gaara. You need to come home as soon as possible. Grandma Chiyo's dead." The automated voice asked if he wanted to hear the message again but Gaara had dropped the phone. D'gani, too had paled considerably. Gaara turned to his friend, completely shell-shocked as the message finally set in. Grandma Chiyo was dead. He had to go home.

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A/N: So! Cliffie again! Please review and tell me if you like it or not. Personally, I think it's good. And I apologise for it's shortness. 


	14. The Golden Interlude

A/N: Yatta! I have finished another chapter! Yoshi! Uh this chapter is a little weird...so you have been warned! And I can't be bother proof-reading it right now so you'll just have to deal with my stupidity. Oh and Gaara's ringtone is Swamped by Lacuna Coil.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for the plot. If you try to accuse me of anything else, I'll be forced to march you up to the top of a hill, show you the world and say: "Now this is what you can't have you fat, ugly article!" Okay?

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Gaara sank to his knees on the floor. He couldn't believe that after all of the crap that had happened _this_ would be the thing to make him go home. D'gani was asking him questions in the background, Gaara vaguely registered, but he wasn't paying attention. A million thoughts were racing through his mind; how could he confront his father? When would the funeral be? What the hell, honestly, was he going to do? How on Earth was he- Gaara was broken out of his reverie by D'gani slapping him across the face. "What?" Gaara asked stupidly, wondering what the hell was going on. 

"What has happened to make you so...stupid?! You weren't paying any attention to me, you just sat there all glassy-eyed! So, what the hell is going on?" D'gani looked and sounded angry, but Gaara knew concern was his driving factor.

"Grandma Chiyo died," Gaara replied simply. D'gani's mouth formed an 'O' shape and it was only a few moments before he was hugging him. Gaara felt tears well up in his eyes and hugged D'gani back. "So now I have to go home. I have to go back to that...that...that..." Gaara couldn't finish his sentence and D'gani shushed him. He took in a breath to say something to Gaara, whether denying or comforting he would never know as his mobile phone rang at that moment.

"_Just another day, the shame is gone; it's hard to believe that I've let it go away. Just a melody, it bleeds in me, hard to believe that I've let it go."_

Gaara picked his phone up from where he had dropped it on the floor and answered it. "Hello?" He said, trying to keep the quaver out of his voice.

"Gaara, it's me, Temari. I have to tell you something," His sister's familiar voice rang out and Gaara waited desperately for her to finish her sentence. "The funeral is on Saturday, but dad refuses to take you. He said that if you really care about Grandma Chiyo, you'll find your own way there. And we got her will today and in it she left you a letter, her lawyer's got that, and also something else that he said he couldn't tell us what it was." It was obvious from her tone what Temari thought of that. "And she also says she wants your friend, D'gani, to sing Into the West at her funeral. But Gaara, I know she meant a lot to you and you were probably the person closest to her. I'm so sorry that dad's being an asshole, do you think that you can get to the funeral without us?" Temari did sound truly saddened and worried about her brother, not that that helped him at all. Gaara was so shocked he couldn't find the strength to reply, but luckily, D'gani was nosy enough to have been listening in on the conversation and he gently took the phone.

"Don't worry, I'll take him. It looks like I've been invited anyway. Thank you for calling but Gaara's currently in no shape to talk. So I'll get him to call you back later. Goodbye," D'gani replied, receiving a small and confused farewell in return before he ended the call. He then turned back to Gaara. "Looks like we're going on a road trip on Friday," D'gani said to his friend, before once again picking up Gaara's phone. "Are you going to tell the others, or should I?" He asked with a mischievous glint in his eyes. Gaara took the phone off of him and sent a joint text to all his friends. The more the merrier, and funerals could always do with some cheer after all.

Thursday passed in a blur of condolences from his friends and teachers telling him to pay attention and before he knew it, it was Friday, the day of the performances in front of the rest of their year. Gaara knew his lines and he knew he knew his lines and the likelihood of him getting them wrong was minute but still he worried about it. For some reason he couldn't mess this one up, if he failed it seemed an affront to Grandma Chiyo's memory. He wanted her to be proud of him; he wanted to live up to her expectations. So it was with a strong resolve that he went to school that day, his head held high and demeanour confident. He walked calmly from class to class with one of his friends but had to walk to their usual meeting place under an Oak tree by himself as the Art teacher had asked him to help clean up. As he was making his way across the school, he walked past a long-haired blonde boy with a sneer on his face. "Fag," the boy said as Gaara strode past. Normally, Gaara would've just let it go and continued but today, he stopped.

"Homophobic piece of shit?" He exclaimed, cocking his head to one side. "It_is_ you! How have you _been_?" He pulled Deidara into a hug and smiled a large sarcastic smile. Deidara shoved him back and Gaara strode away laughing. His emotions were in turmoil currently, so why not have a little spiteful fun? After break, were the class's last chances to rehearse before the assembly when they would be performing. The teacher gave them the order they would be going on in; Gaara was two places after D'gani and Sasuke who were going on second. Gaara still had no idea what the two boys were doing and he and Neji were practicing outside again. Lunch was spent getting in as much last minute practice as possible, but all too soon were they waiting back stage for their time to shine. Gaara felt a fluttering of nerves but pushed them back down before remembering something Chiyo had once told him.

-------Flashback! w00t!-------

"If you're ever nervous, don't push back that fear! It will drive you to do well. That anticipation is what makes you want to do well, to banish those feelings of dread. But to do that, first you must embrace them. That is what makes a performance. The knowledge that you're afraid but you're not afraid to be afraid, that is what true bravery and skill is! Never forget that you alone have the ability to love your fear, and you alone have the power to overcome that fear. Every good actor knows that," Chiyo said with a bout of laughter. Gaara smiled at his grandmother.

"How do you know all this stuff, Grandma?" Gaara asked, slightly awed by his grandmother's brilliance.

"Because," She beckoned him closer and leaned in to whisper in his ear "knowing is what Grandmas do best!" They both laughed and Gaara felt so happy he had such a great woman as his grandmother.

-------Flashback end! Aw!-------

Gaara shook himself out of his thoughts when he realised that D'gani and Sasuke's performance was next. He was curious as to what they would do as he didn't really think that Sasuke and D'gani had much in common. D'gani and Sasuke walked out on stage and the teacher introduced them.

"This is Sasuke and D'gani performing a scene from The Princess Bride," their teacher's voice rang out clearly. Gaara and Neji looked at one another. They hoped that the other boys wouldn't be doing the same scene as them. The teacher would never allow that, would they? Sasuke walked out onto stage and turned to face one side of the stage. D'gani ran onto that side of the stage from backstage and Sasuke made a motion as if he had just thrown something at the other boy. D'gani fell back against the bolted-down podium.

"Sorry father, I tried," he muttered loudly before slumping back. Sasuke smirked.

"You must be that Spanish brat I taught a lesson to all those years ago. Have you been tracing me your whole life, only to fail now? That must be the worst thing I've ever heard," Sasuke replied, his smirk growing wider. "How marvellous!" D'gani tried to stand up but fell back, leaning on the podium but still on his feet. It was only then that Gaara realised each boy held a foil used for fencing in their respective hands. "Goodness!" Sasuke drawled amusedly. "Are you still trying to win?" D'gani pushed himself back onto his feet, his left hand pressed against his imaginary wound.

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father. Prepare to die," D'gani said in a rather good Spanish accent. Sasuke's smirk disappeared to be replaced with a frown.

"You've got an over-developed sense of vengeance," he stated before thrusting his sword forward, aiming for D'gani's heart but the other boy parried his blow and only hit D'gani's upper right torso. He tried again and was, again, parried, this time hitting D'gani's left shoulder.

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father. Prepare to die," D'gani said again, thrusting and striking with his own foil. Sasuke blocked and parried each of his blows. "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father. Prepare to die," He struck once more, again being blocked. "Hello! My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father! Prepare to die!" D'gani's voice was louder and he had by this time driven Sasuke to the other side of the stage. Sasuke gritted his teeth.

"Stop saying that!" he spat and swung his sword over D'gani's head as the boy ducked. D'gani rose up and thrust his foil so it hit Sasuke's upper right torso. Sasuke grunted in fake pain and swung his own foil again. Again D'gani evaded and this time struck Sasuke's left arm.

"Hello! My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father! Prepare to die!" D'gani yelled as he trapped Sasuke against the edge of the stage. "Offer me money," D'gani said and flicked his blade across Sasuke's left cheek.

"Yes," Sasuke hissed in reply. D'gani smirked slightly.

"Power too. Promise me that!" D'gani ordered, striking Sasuke's other cheek.

"All that I have and more, please," Sasuke replied angrily. D'gani pulled his left hand out to the side, away from his fake wound.

"Give me anything I ask for!" D'gani said as Sasuke made to bring down both his holding his sword. D'gani caught them with his left hand and thrust his blade through Sasuke's chest. "I want my father back you son of a bitch!" D'gani said bitterly as he pushed Sasuke off of his sword with his foot. He then stumbled off stage as the audience clapped and cheered loudly. Sasuke got up and raised one hand in acknowledgement before walking off after D'gani.

"That was awesome!" Gaara said to D'gani and Sasuke as they strode over to him and Neji. D'gani smiled at the redhead and Sasuke motioned for them to be quiet as he heard a familiar voice shouting: "That's my Sasuke! Oh he did so well!" Sasuke groaned and walked over to the curtain to see which rabid fangirl was screaming his name now. He turned beet red when he saw who it was. D'gani, Gaara and Neji walked over to see what Sasuke was disturbed by. They saw a certain blonde idiot standing in the aisle and shouting about how his Sasuke had done so well. They all fell about laughing while Sasuke yelled: "It's not funny!"

After they got home from school that day, Gaara and all his cute little chibi friends (A/N: XD Don't ask!) packed and prepared for their road trip. They would be driving in Itachi and Neji's cars. Gaara, Neji and D'gani would be traveling in one and Itachi, Haku, Sasuke and Naruto would be going in the other. They all piled into their respective cars and set off, Itachi following Neji. In five minutes they had to return to Haku's house as D'gani had forgotten the lyrics to Into the West, which he would be learning on the drive. After they had all piled into their respective cars again, Haku realised that he didn't have his hairbrush and so he ran in to get that when Gaara realised they still had no idea where in Suna the funeral would be. He dialed his sister's number on his cell phone. It rang three times before she answered.

"Hello?" She asked distractedly.

"Temari, it's Gaara. I need to know where and at what time exactly the funeral is," Gaara stated calmly.

"Oh right! I'm sorry I forgot to give you them before. It's at the first Presbyterian Church on Gordan St. No it's really at number 4 Privet Drive. Okay, I was looking for the address. It's actually at the Akasuna compound at their private cemetery. It starts at nine o'clock and goes until eleven. Okay, Gaara. I gotta go. Bye!" Temari said as Gaara copied down the address and times.

"Bye," he replied but she was already gone. He wondered what was up with her; he had never seen her so rushed. Gaara settled back into his chair as they finally set off. Neji put on an old cassette tape he found in his glove compartment and Every You Every Me came on. Gaara drummed his fingers on his seat in time with the music.

_Sucker love is heaven sent.  
You pucker up, our passion's spent.  
My heart's a tart, your body's rent.  
My body's broken, yours is spent_.

Gaara thought about his past and how his situation had changed. Now, not only was he away from his abusive father, but he had a loving boyfriend and friends who understood him.

_Carve your name into my arm.  
Instead of stressed, I lie here charmed.  
'Cause there's nothing else to do,  
Every me and every you._

Gaara thought about the scars on his thighs and arms, from when he used to cut himself. And he thought of what Chiyo had done to make him discontinue doing it. She had told him that if he was going to use pain to block pain, he didn't deserve the beautiful skin he had. He didn't deserve to see the sun and be free under its warmth. The next day, Gaara threw out his razor blade and lost his fascination with blood, for what was liquid compared to the respect of his grandmother?

_Sucker love, a box I choose.  
No other box I choose to use.  
Another love I would abuse,  
No circumstances could excuse._

_In the shape of things to come.  
Too much poison come undone.  
'Cause there's nothing else to do,  
Every me and every you.  
Every me and every you,  
Every me...he_

Gaara's eyes closed as his thoughts returned once more to his grandmother. He didn't want to think about her, the death was too fresh in his mind. But still, his thoughts had other ideas. They would go nowhere else, so Gaara let them linger in their state of nostalgia.

_Sucker love is known to swing.  
Prone to cling and waste these things.  
Pucker up for heavens sake.  
There's never been so much at stake._

_I serve my head up on a plate.  
It's only comfort, calling late.  
'Cause there's nothing else to do,  
Every me and every you.  
Every me and every you,  
Every me...he_

_Every me and every you,  
Every me...he_

Somehow, even though he grieved for his lost idol, Gaara's state of mind could only be described as lucid. All of his current emotions; sadness, relieved, anger, revulsion, loneliness, surprise and self-loathing all blended into lucidity. Gaara sighed and opened his eyes, staring unseeingly at nothing in particular out the window as D'gani muttered lyrics to himself, occasionally giving Neji directions.

_Like the naked leads the blind.  
I know I'm selfish, I'm unkind.  
Sucker love I always find,  
Someone to bruise and leave behind._

_All alone in space and time.  
There's nothing here but what here's mine.  
Something borrowed something blue.  
Every me and every you.  
Every me and every you,  
Every me...he_

_Every me and every you,_

_Every me...he._

_Every me and every you,_

_Every me...he._

_Every me and every you,_

_Every me...he._

_Every me and every you,_

_Every me...he. _

As the song faded, so did Gaara's state of calm. He began to twitch and rustle as restlessness settled in. Gaara sighed. It was going to be a long trip.

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A/N: Okay! So, what do you think? It's 2700 and something words so I'm happy with it. Yeah I don't know what's up with the end part so sorry about the crappy chapter, but it was time for a filler. Oh well. Review and I will love you forever. Unless you use incorrect grammar/punctuation and can't spell. Then I'll just laugh at you. And you should try to write an interesting review, so that I can write an interesting reply! Bye now! 


	15. The Bohemian Way

A/N: Okay. I'm sorry about me taking so long with this, but it needed its own time to sort itself out. It's kinda longer than its predecessors so that should make up for some of the lateness. Oh and be warned! This chapter is seriously strange. I'm not sure what happened, but Gaara wanted to appear crazy in this one so who am I to interfere? Also the song partway through is A Case of You by Joni Mitchell. And no I don't care if anyone mocks me for liking that song, but it was on Practical Magic so that'll be why I know it. Oh and some of what the tombstone says is from Practical Magic too...It's what I want on mine... Except I'm being cremated. Damn.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Into the West by Howard Shore or A Case of You by Joni Mitchell. Or anything else in here except for D'gani and the plot.

* * *

Gaara woke when he heard the car door slam. They had reached the motel they would be staying at during their night in Suna and would be driving back home directly after the funeral. He had fallen asleep just as the dark red rays of the sun touched the horizon. It was now dark; Gaara estimated it to be around eight o'clock, although he could be wrong as Suna's day ended much before Konoha's long eternities of sun. A watery sun that paled in comparison the great orb of heat that shone down upon Sunagakure.

"Oh, you're awake," D'gani's voice stated from the backseat, making Gaara jump. The interior of the car was too dark; he hadn't even noticed the other boy's presence. "Come on, let's go inside." The two males got out of the car and picked their way across a nearly-deserted parking lot to the building excreting a harsh electric glow with a neon sign in the window; 'vacancies.' Gaara and D'gani entered the slightly cramped building containing the rest of their friends. The wandered over to where Neji was, waiting in line behind Haku and Itachi who were just handed the keys to their temporary dwelling. The three boys approached the counter as Haku and Itachi were swallowed by the darkness of the night.

"Do you have any three bed rooms left?" Neji enquired as politely as someone who was exhausted from driving for four hours could be.

"No, only a room with one single and one double bed. However, we do have several rooms with two single beds and another with one single," the man behind the counter replied slightly maliciously. "But of course, you would have to pay more for the second option." He grinned nastily at them, as he would obviously put them through the discomfort of having to share a bed with another boy, or pay more than the crappy little rooms were worth.

"We'll take the first option," Neji replied without hesitation and the man looked slightly perturbed. "How much is it?" The man just stared at them with a look of disgust.

"You're not," He started then paused as his upper lip curled back "like_that_ are you? 'Cause we don't want none of your-" He was cut off by Gaara.

"Surely, you are not denying us a room because of homophobia?" Gaara said with a fierce glare. The Uchiha's were very proud of their family glare. They had spent years perfecting it, so that it was the most fearsome glare in the world. The look Gaara gave this man made the 'Uchiha glare' look like a pout. "Because you know that that's a hate crime, and if you were, I would sue you and you would lose your license and the pathetic amount of profit you gain from this business would be donated by me to the AIDS foundation. So how much are the rooms?" Gaara said with a steely glint in his jade eyes.

"Are you threatening me, kid?" the man asked with a sneer, leaning closer over the counter. He was a good deal larger than Gaara, but the redhead held his ground.

"No," Gaara replied, not moving yet looking far more dangerous than the man in front of him "I am just explaining to you the consequences of your prejudice. You see, if I was threatening you, I would've grabbed you by your shirt and shoved a knife under your throat. However, violence is not what I came here for. I came back to Suna for my grandmother's funeral. If anyone makes me late or otherwise interferes with me reaching my grandmother's funeral, I will kill them." Gaara informed the man in front of him who looked slightly frightened for a second before sighing and sitting back down on his side of the counter.

"60 bucks a night," The man said in a quiet voice. Gaara smiled unpleasantly and Neji handed over 60 dollars. They were given the key and left Sasuke and Naruto to it. As they were collecting their bags from the car, Naruto nervously approached Gaara.

"Gaara," He said in a voice that was slightly too high. Gaara didn't look at him; his face was shrouded in the shadow of the night. "Uh, what you said about the killing...that wasn't to us too, right? Hehe, I mean, you wouldn't kill us if we made you late or..." Naruto trailed off as Gaara turned to look at him, a large grin plastered across his features.

"Who did you think I was talking to?" Gaara replied in a frightfully high voice. "Come play with us, Naruto, forever and ever and ever." Naruto squeaked and ran off to hide his nose in Sasuke's chest while Gaara, D'gani and Neji laughed loudly.

After a night on lumpy mattresses, Gaara and his friends gathered up their possessions and piled into their cars before driving to a diner. They were the only customers that morning it seemed and so, as soon as they were seated, a woman wearing stereotypical waitress clothes approached their table and asked them want they wanted in a cheery manner. Gaara felt sick just hearing it for some reason and so only ordered a piece of plain toast.

Post-breakfast, the seven males climbed back into their respective vehicles and proceeded onto the funeral. As they made their way to the Akasuna compound, D'gani began to hum. Softly, at first, the tune to the song Lady D'Arbanville by Cat Stevens. As he did so, Gaara became more and more on edge. He didn't want to be here, with the false smiles and homophobic people. He didn't want to be around D'gani and his humming of depressing songs. He didn't want anything right now. He felt like an obstinate toddler, desperate for attention but hating the constant rules and expectations and activities. He wanted something to relieve all this built up tension, some strange and powerful force of cathartic energy to come and soothe his frustration. To say 'It's alright. You can be angry, be sad and anything else you want to feel. Just let it go, bit by bit. You'll be fine; everything will be fine' But, of course, everything wasn't fine. Grandma Chiyo was dead. Grandma Chiyo was dead!

With deep shuddering breaths, Gaara felt the cold realisation that he would never again hear her voice; never again see her smiling face. Where she had been, there was nothing but a great gaping hole. A hollowness deep inside his very being that desperately looked to be filled. Oh how that hole ached! And its pain spread like the malignant cells of a cancerous sore. Feeding and nurturing his pain, ripping apart his happiness and his will to exist. The world felt dark.

Yes, that's where he was; floating in an eternal darkness that was slowly eating away at him. In that darkness was pain. Pure agony amplified a thousand times and a thousand times again. Nothing could stop that force of pain. Nothing. Gaara knew there wasn't much left of himself inside that eternal darkness and he was scared. What would he become, if he gave in to the all-consuming black? Would he add to the pain? Would he disappear forever, never to be seen...heard...felt ever again? Is this all there was for him? An unfading blackness that swallowed your very soul? Perhaps he should give in to the darkness, make things easier, and just disappear. Never to be felt...seen...heard...No! He would be heard! He would not fade away! His existence meant more than that. More than this darkness!

Did you hear that, darkness? You can't have him! Slowly, as if it were a true happening, Gaara felt himself reappear. The darkness forced back by his will. He would not leave! He would not abandon those he loved...and who loved him! Neji! D'gani! Haku! Sasuke! Naruto! Itachi! Temari! Kankuro! His mind screamed out the names of those he truly loved and would exist for. They were more than enough. Just one person to protect and to love was enough to justify his existence and to beat back that darkness. He would not disappear! As the amaranth, he would bloom for as long as he had people to care for. Because that's what living is; loving and caring about others. More than money, more than any other success, someone to live for. That was the meaning of his existence.

Gaara opened his eyes. He was still seated in the car, still the same. But...was he the same? 'No' was the simple answer. A calm and collected, meaningful 'No,' because he wasn't the same. He wasn't nervous or angry anymore. He gazed upon the world with eyes of lucidity, clearly perceiving the world and his place in it. As he looked with those eyes; at Neji; at the sun; at the universe, D'gani began to sing, as if he had known exactly what Gaara felt. It wasn't the lyrics, nor the tune, but the feeling the song brought and the moment it came at.

"Oh I am a lonely painter;  
I live in a box of paints.  
I'm frightened by the devil,  
And I'm drawn to those ones that ain't afraid  
I remember that time that you told me, you said,  
Love is touching souls,  
Surely you touched mine,  
'Cause part of you pours out of me,  
In these lines from time to time.

Oh, you are in my blood like holy wine,  
And you taste so bitter, but you taste so sweet.  
Oh, I could drink a case of you.  
I could drink a case of you darling.  
Still I'd be on my feet.  
And still be on my feet," D'gani's voice rang out mournfully, hitting notes that most women would shy away from. And the tone of that song and all of his recent revelations brought tears to Gaara's eyes.

All seven of them were silent as they clambered out of their cars, their attention focused towards the large building in front of them. The rough stone of the walls echoed remembrances of deep crimson, discoloured by age to a lighter red. As they approached the daunting structure Haku suddenly stopped.

"Oh!" He exclaimed and hurried over to the fence to their left which separated the compound from Suna's botanical gardens. Haku slipped through a hole in the fence and came back a few moments later with a bouquet of pure white tulips with three red ones in the middle. He handed the bouquet to Gaara who distributed them, one white to every person and was left himself with the three red ones. They then approached the dark opening in the red stonework; Gaara and Neji at the front. As they passed into darkness, Gaara felt a stab of irrational fear and unconsciously leaned closer to Neji who entwined their fingers together.

Gaara breathed a sigh of relief as they were once again bathed in the pale morning sun. His hand left Neji's as they were no longer alone. Gaara walked over to a stooped old man with incredible eyebrows. And greeted him before beckoning them over to be introduced. This happened several times over as the red courtyard they were standing in filled with more and more people. Eventually, they were led down a dull red corridor and into an antechamber. Lying there was a coffin, and Gaara was thankful that the lid was closed. They were shown to seats in the second row and D'gani seated himself at the end, not sure when he would be singing. He thought it would be soon though.

However, the memorial began and over an hour of religious tedium and unknown speech-makes passed. Then Sasori, a boy Neji and Haku recognised from their school stood up and made a short speech.

"My grandmother was a very proud woman. She would never accept she couldn't do something just because no one else could. She never allowed other people to speak to her in any way but respectfully. And she was the most honourable person I have ever met. She had no prejudices; no quick judgements and although she was very stubborn, she never passed off anyone else's opinion. Sure, she was mildly insane and once told me that her greatest ambition in life was to become a drunken clown with hepatitis, but all of that faded away from the brightly shining spirit within her. In many respects, she was my hero and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I think Gaara saw her in the same light. But even though she's gone, she's no less my hero. I will always respect her with all my being. Lest we forget, Grandma Chiyo," Sasori stated with the voice of someone used to public speaking. He stepped away from the podium that had been set up in front of the coffin. The elderly man with the enormous eyebrows now approached the podium and said that now D'gani would be performing the song, Into the West.

D'gani stood up and walked to the front of the room but ignored the microphone offered. His voice was easily powerful enough to sing without it. He closed his eyes, filled his lung with oxygen and began.

"Lay down,  
your sweet and weary head.  
Night is falling.  
You have come to journey's end.

Sleep now, and dream  
of the ones who came before.  
They are calling,  
from across a distant shore.

Why do you weep?  
What are these tears upon your face?  
Soon you will see.  
All of your fears will pass away.  
Safe in my arms,  
you're only sleeping.

What can you see,  
on the horizon?  
Why do the white gulls call?  
Across the sea,  
a pale moon rises.  
The ships have come,  
to carry you home.

And all will turn,  
to silver glass.  
A light on the water.  
All souls pass." D'gani's voice echoed throughout the small room as he sung powerfully, with all the passion and fire that he could physically manage. Gaara, who had not shed a single tear up until this point, began to silently and softly, cry. The tears flowed freely as he thought of her and all that she meant to him. She would live on! He remembered hearing somewhere that love isn't just some emotion, it was everything you said; when you made a connection with another human being; when you hugged and felt for them. Wanting to protect them and keep them safe. Missing them. Sadness. Love was not one emotion, but many. The greatest thing a human could experience in their short time in this world.  
"Hope fades,  
into the world of night.  
Through shadows falling,  
Out of memory and time.

Don't say  
we have come now to the end.  
White shores are calling.  
You and I will meet again.  
And you'll be here in my arms,  
just sleeping.

What can you see,  
on the horizon?  
Why do the white gulls call?  
Across the sea,  
a pale moon rises.  
The ships have come,  
to carry you home.

And all will turn,  
to silver glass.  
A light on the water.  
Grey ships pass  
Into the West." D'gani's voice faded and he opened his eyes before walking back to his seat and sitting down. In his eyes was a sparkle that only singing could give him. The ceremony continued for another fifteen minutes before concluding with old eyebrow man's speech, evidently he was Chiyo's younger brother. Then they were invited to go see the casket being lowered, but Gaara couldn't do it. All his energy had dissipated, devoured whole by D'gani's singing it seemed.

"Excuse me," A well-fashioned voice said and Gaara turned to see a man in a suit holding an envelope out to him. "Your grandmother left you this letter in her will," the man continued as Gaara numbly managed to take the envelope. "Also," he continued and his voice dropped slightly. "She left you something that you might not want too many people knowing about." He cast a meaningful glance at Gaara's friends.

"I don't care if they know; three of them are incredibly rich," Gaara replied, because he didn't and they were.

"She left you an inheritance totalling the sum of twelve million dollars," the suit-clad man stated. Gaara's jaw dropped open, but he just shook his head.

"Where...how...me?" Was all he managed to get out before he took a deep breath and realised he didn't really care all that much about money; he had everything he needed and who in the world really needed twelve million big ones? "Uh, thank you for telling me." He said finally and the man nodded before leaving.

"So," Neji said, coming up behind the redhead. "You're a millionaire." The words were so surreal and ludicrous to him that he laughed. And he couldn't stop. Nothing had ever seemed funnier, but at the same time, more sad. He continued to laugh, even as the tears still flowed and his laughter was now coming out in soft gurgles, not unlike those an infant makes. Finally, Gaara recovered sufficiently from his turbulent maelstrom of emotion and the seven youths made their way out of the antechamber and out of the compound.

As they passed the entrance to the cemetery, Gaara stopped and beckoned them forwards. As they came to Chiyo's tombstone, which she had said she didn't want or need, each of the boys placed a flower there until there was a small pile of white tulips with Gaara's red one in the very centre and on top.

"Hello," A voice said and they turned to see Sasori smiling softly at them. Neji turned to Gaara, remembering a question he'd had before, only to find the redhead gone. He was about to go look for him when Sasori stopped him, seemingly reading his mind. "Don't worry. He'll be fine. He's just got someone he needs to see," he reassured calmly and Neji nodded and forced himself to stay put.

Gaara straightened up from placing the last of his tulips on the tombstone before him. He stared at the grave for a few moments before a sound behind him alerted him to another's presence. "Gaara," the voice of his father croaked from behind him.

"Hello, father," Gaara responded calmly. Since that strange fit of laughing and weeping he'd had, he felt much calmer than usual. So much more accepting of everything.

"You don't sound surprised," his father stated mournfully as Gaara continued to stand with his back towards the man. "I'm sure you're very angry with me."

"You can't stop what's coming," Gaara responded simply and the man behind him nodded and Gaara knew regardless of whether is was possible or not. "And I'm sure I'll be a great deal angrier at you after I read this letter."

"Then don't read it. But Gaara, I'm sorry," his father's voice cracked as he said this. "I never wanted to hurt you...I was just so angry all the time...so angry..." he trailed off.

"I know," Gaara said, because he had, in a way. He had known his father didn't hate him, he hated what had happened to him and had been very childish about everything. And Gaara forgave him, because one of them had to be the adult. "And I promised myself a long time ago, that if you apologised, just once; I'd forgive you."

"Just like that? After all the pain...all the hurt I caused you...?" Gaara's father sounded deeply regretful and bitter. "That simple?"

"I promised mum before she died that I wouldn't hate you," Gaara informed him suddenly. "And not once, not even when you hit me, or insulted me, not once did I hate you. I hated the things you did, I hated the alcohol, but I never hated you. I just don't have it in me. So don't question why, just accept it and stop apologising already." And with that, Gaara turned and smiled at his father before returning to his friends. His mother's tombstone's message still running though his head.

'_Forgive easily, kiss slowly, eat molasses with pancakes, keep rosemary by your garden gate, plant lavender for luck and fall in love as often as you can'_

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A/N: So! What'd ya'll think? I think it's a tad strange but I like it for some obscure reason. Oh well. Oh and Happy New Years to everyone as it is 2008 in an hour or so here. _  
_


	16. Emotional Letterbombs 1

A/N: I'm updating! -smiles around proudly- But it's not a very good update. I liked it when I wrote it but...-shrugs- I wanted to put some shonen ai in this one but I didn't want to write more because I thought it would be cluttered if I did that. Most of this chapter is the letter, so you have been warned.

Disclaimer: I don't own any copyrighted materials featured in the following. Release Me is by Frida Öhrn.

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It was only when Gaara awoke on Sunday morning that the full realisation that he had twelve million dollars registered in his mind. The thought had seemed distant before, as if it belonged to someone else and he was merely borrowing it. Now it came as a personal truth. He had twelve million dollars. _He had twelve million dollars_. It was absurd and yet Gaara felt it fitting somehow. Grandma Chiyo had always been eccentric and certainly had sufficient funds to leave such a large inheritance. But why Gaara? He had always felt that he and his grandmother had had a closer relationship than his siblings and cousins, but don't all children feel that way about the one they truly admire? Perhaps all her grandchildren had been left equally ludicrous sums of money? He wouldn't put it past her. She was a strange old lady, his grandma. He supposed she would have found it amusing to spread her considerable fortune as widely as possible. Yet still he hoped it had been for personal reasons, not on a mere whim. 

He had still to read the letter; he was dreading it for some reason. He felt that there was some great and terrible truth to be found inside it; that it would shake his world. Whether he admitted it or not, Gaara was afraid of change. He liked things to be the way they were and avoided great upheavals wherever possible. He had always let other people worry about the future and what to do next. He had never concerned himself overly much with how to improve or evolve his life, it was fine the way it was so why tamper with it?

No, Gaara disliked change. Yet just as compelling as his trepidation was his desire to know the contents of his beloved grandmother's last word on the matter, whatever it was, that had been so important that she had ensured that it would be known. After all, who really thinks about telling their grandchildren strange things even after they themselves are long gone? Only people with secrets to be told, was Gaara's answer, and the probable source of all his unwillingness. But he would read the letter...just as soon as he stopped being such a coward. He sighed and sat up in his bed, glancing over at D'gani's bed which had gained a base a few days ago and now rested against the wall opposite Gaara and the window. D'gani was sitting up in his bed, staring off into space, arms clasped around his knees and his chin resting on them.

As he watched, Gaara thought that it had been cruel of him to ask D'gani to sing at the funeral, given his experiences with such matters. He often forgot just how much the quirky youth had been through and how things like funerals could set him off. From the look of D'gani's pale face and the lines under his eyes, he hadn't slept. Gaara quietly got up and walked over to the boy, sat down next to him and embraced him. D'gani moved his head so it rested on top of Gaara's and the two of them sat there for a long moment, neither moving nor speaking as the world moved around them, shielded from its change by their own understanding. Then Haku walked down the stairs calling out for them 'to get up or he'd eat all the food and then be pissed at them for making him fat' and the moment was broken. Gaara smiled reassuringly and D'gani returned the gesture, albeit with a slightly watery one.

After a lazy breakfast during which Haku treated them to a lengthy discussion on dressing for the ball. ("You don‎'t want to have too much colour or you'll look garish, but if everyone turns up in black, that's just as bad.") This was interrupted by D'gani helpfully bursting into song,

"I am the fire burning desperately,

But you're controlling me!

Release me!

Release me!" after which Haku was so amused that he left for Itachi's house. Gaara now had no excuse not to go up to his room and stare blankly at the wall with the letter sitting in front of him. You can do this, he told himself, willing his hands to move to the nondescript envelope in front of him. They, however, stayed traitorously still. He glared at them, because it felt good to blame someone other than his cowardly self, even if that someone was his own non-sentient limbs.

However, Gaara knew that today, he would read that letter. He had to, regardless of any 'ifs', 'buts' or 'hows' that may occur to him. He owed it to his grandmother and, quite honestly, he really wanted to know. Just not quite yet, he decided and scooted off his bed where he had been sitting, carefully skirting around the letter as if it contained some deadly virus. Upon walking downstairs he realised that D'gani had gone to the mall with Sai, Zabuza had been called into work and Haku, of course was at Itachi's. For the first time since moving to Konoha, Gaara had nothing to do and no one to do it with on the weekend.

Neji was grounded by his uncle for leaving Konoha without his express permission; he had said that Neji could stay with some friends on Friday night but not that he could leave the city limits. Naruto and Sasuke were having a day alone together that was probably being interrupted by Sakura and Ino. And Gaara couldn't even consider calling Nia as he hadn't spoken to her since rescuing D'gani from her revolting house. All in all, his socialising options were at an all-time low. In an act of desperation, he turned the radio on and found The Letter by Wayne Carson Thompson playing. He stared at the speakers in disbelief. What were the odds...? Stupid coincidence, that's all it was, an unlikely coincidence.

Gaara flicked through several channels and finally settled on one that was playing Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie. After this song finished they played some horrible pop song that made him quickly turn the radio off. He sat in silence for a few minutes before absently wandering up the stairs and resuming his staring at the letter. Once he realised he was doing it again he tried to distract himself by picking up one of the many books strewn across all the surfaces in the room but gave up after he noticed he wasn't reading at all, merely peering over the top of the book, at the envelope.

Casting aside the book, Gaara picked up the letter and swept the build-up of books and papers on the room's writing desk unceremoniously onto the floor. He then placed the envelope in the centre of the desk, laid his palms flat either side of it and leaned menacingly towards it, glaring softly. His own name, printed in black on the front of the cream envelope, stared innocently back at him. With shaking hands, Gaara flipped the envelope over quickly and slipped a thumbnail under the flap, gently; carefully tearing the envelope open. Once he could tug the letter, which was written on plain, crisp white paper, out of its packaging, Gaara laid it back down on the desk and stepped back, breathing a sigh of relief as he did so.

So far so good, he thought to himself at the same time as feeling quite glad he was alone as he was sure he looked like an idiot. "Afraid to open a letter...honestly!" Gaara muttered to himself scornfully, yet no matter how much he scoffed at his behaviour, he still felt an irrational fear of whatever the writing on that piece of paper might reveal. With a resolve that surprised himself, Gaara picked up the sheaves of paper and began to read:

_Dear Gaara,_

_Although it's a cliché, if you read this letter, it means that I am dead. But don't worry, I'm sure dying isn't so bad or so many people wouldn't do it. Aside from my, probably, recent demise, I hope all is well with you and you're still gallivanting around recklessly with your friend, D'gani. He was a weirdo, but a nice boy passed all his peculiarities, just like you. _

Gaara stopped reading, half exasperated, half amused. "Even beyond the grave she mocks me," he murmured in disbelief, shaking his head before continuing.

_Knowing you as I do, you'll have spent the last few days imagining this letter is full of deep and scandalous family secrets. I am afraid to say that it will not disappoint. However, it is very important that you know. For knowledge is power and you could do with some strength, no offence meant, obviously. But before we immerse ourselves in the past we should look to the future. I have left you a sizeable amount of money that should last you for the rest of your life, and longer I'd bet. The money is for your university courses, another insurance of mine that you will gain more knowledge, and, thus, more power. Spend it well and learn as much as you can in everything you so desire._

_So...where to begin? Probably at the beginning, I suppose. Your father was born Yondaime Sabaku two years after his older brother, Hiroshi Akasuna. Hiroshi's father was a man named Hitogama Momochi._

Gaara paused. Momochi...Momochi...Why did that name sound so familiar? Shrugging it off, Gaara resumed his reading.

_He was my first love; a love my parents didn't approve of, naturally. I was of noble birth and he was a sailor from Kirigakure, a place where thievery and skulduggery were second nature to most men, even and perhaps most especially among the sailors. But Hitogama was a good man. I had planned to run away with him the night he was killed. I had told my parents I was pregnant with his child and my father had some of my would-be suitors beat him to death. I named the child Hiroshi in honour of his father and exacted my revenge on his murderers by leading them each along in turn then breaking their hearts. I became quite good at it._

_A few months after Hiroshi was born, I met Sandaime Sabaku. I was quite taken by him, he was extremely handsome and perfectly charming; within a year, we were married. I once again fell pregnant, however, my parents approved of my relationship with this man. He was of equal nobility to me and an honourable man, for a while everything was perfect. Until the curse of the Akasunas struck me again. Sandaime enlisted in the army four months after Yondaime was born. Six weeks later, I received word that he had been killed rescuing a child from enemy troops, gunned down by forty men. I was left to raise two sons and vowed to never love again. _

_As Hiroshi and Yondaime grew older, a distinct enmity began to form between the two brothers; Yondaime could never amount to the same as his brother, in anyone's eyes, least of all his own. Hiroshi was a genius, academically and physically. He excelled in everything he tried, much to the consternation of his younger brother. Yondaime excelled in school and sports too, but not to the level of perfection his half-brother did. My father was constantly doting on Hiroshi and endlessly criticizing Yondaime; it got to such an extent that I forbade my father to visit the children and vowed to move far away if he even hinted at Yondaime's faults in front of me again. Even without my father's constant critique, Yondaime resented his brother more than I even believed possible. If I had seen it, maybe I could have prevented what happened next. _

_The boys were sent on a hunting trip when Hiroshi was seventeen and Yondaime was just fifteen. After two days alone in the wilderness, something in Yondaime cracked and he shot Hiroshi, shattering his kneecap and preventing him from ever beating his brother athletically again. Yondaime, of course, insisted it was an accident and showed very sincere remorse for what he had done. But when he thought no one was watching, I saw the dark gleam in his eye and the smug smile twitching at the edges of his mouth. I didn't know how or why, but I knew my son had become a monster. Yet I still ignored my better instincts and convinced myself I was imagining the signs of anger and hate in my beautiful son. _

_As the two boys grew up and the hunting tragedy became more distant I forgot my concerns about my son and fell into a comfortable lull. When he was twenty one years old, Hiroshi met a young girl named Yukio. They married and two years later had a beautiful daughter named Hiroyuki. Yondaime was jealous; I could see it in his eyes. Hiroshi had always had a certain charm with women that he himself lacked. That was until he met Karura. She and her brother, Yashamaru, had recently moved to Suna after living in Konoha for several years with a young couple named Minato Namikaze and his fiancé, Kushina Uzumaki. _

Gaara stopped reading again. That name was definitely familiar. Who was this woman with the same surname as Naruto? Gaara pondered this for a moment before returning to the letter, making a mental note to ask Naruto the next time he saw him.

_In Karura, Yondaime found something that he had never found in anyone before; understanding. For her whole life, Karura had lived in her twin's shadow, never quite as miraculously talented as he, slighted just as Yondaime had been. The two fell in love and were married; Yondaime was twenty five and Karura twenty two. However slight, the age difference bothered Yashamaru, among other things. I think that he had seen the same malicious glint in my son's eyes that I had, so many years before. Yashamaru refused Yondaime's offer for him to be best man at the wedding, along side Hiroshi with whom Yondaime was now getting along amicably. _

_Little Hiroyuki was the flower-girl, all dressed up in a beautiful golden dress, just four years old. It was as she came trotting down the aisle, scattering petals as she did so that she collapsed. Later, in the hospital, she was diagnosed with leukaemia and given three years to live. This was perhaps the cruellest thing I have ever encountered in my whole life. To give a child, an innocent an expiry date. That is the most disgusting thing; the clinical, almost nonchalant way in which the doctor told me that my granddaughter would never grow up; would never have children; never even go to school. It makes me want to vomit just thinking about it. Hiroshi was never the same again. _

_The promised three years went by and two things happened on the same day. One terrible; one magnificent. Hiroyuki died in her hospital bed while she slept exactly seven minutes before Karura gave birth to the first of her children; Temari Hiroyuki Sabaku. My brother said to me that her birth was marred by the death of her cousin, but I think that Hiroshi saw it as Temari's birth had marred his daughter's passing. The most decent thing Yondaime ever did was to name his daughter after the niece he lost; for even his resentment of his brother had not extended to that beautiful ray of sunshine, my beautiful granddaughter; Hiroyuki Akasuna, we will remember you. _

_After his daughter's funeral, Hiroshi didn't say a word to anyone but Yukio for two years. Then Yondaime's second child was born; Kankuro. This startled him out of his recluse and he began to live again, seemingly surprised by the fact that his niece had grown up so much and knew him as 'Uncle Hiro." A year later, Sasori Akasuna came into the world and Hiroshi was happy, truly happy for the first time in years. That was when things began to go sour. Although the brothers were cordial with each other, the animosity that had threatened to tear them apart since childhood resurfaced in the form of a young woman who called herself Tora. She was beautiful, but was the most devious and evil creature I've ever come across. Yondaime desired her, so did Hiroshi, I'm sure, but the death of his daughter had created a bond stronger than anything in the world to Yukio and he would never be unfaithful to her. _

_Yondaime, however, was not so well-joined with his wife. She had found out about his attraction to Tora, of course and so took the only course of action she felt available to her. She ensured that she once more fell pregnant, this time with you; Gaara Sabaku. However, if she had believed that a new baby would bring her husband back to his senses, she was sadly mistaken. My son has always had a weak character and now was no different. He had an affair with Tora against the vehement protests of his brother and was eventually caught by me. I slapped the girl and told her to "get dressed and get out before I came to my senses and killed her" My son tried to protest, but I doubt he'd ever seen me so angry. I ranted and raved at him for hours until he finally agreed to be faithful or the consequences were so dire that even I shudder to think what I might've done at that moment. But, no matter what I said, I had never intended for Karura to find out. _

_The poor girl went into labour when she found out the news and we came so close to losing both of you. However, you both pulled through and Yondaime seemed so relieved that I thought he would keep his promise. Four years went by, remarkably fast and without incident. Then, disaster struck once more as it was so prone to do in our family. On Sasori's very first day at school, both his parents died in a car accident. A truck driver had fallen asleep at the wheel and his truck, full of Hyuuga enterprise products, smashed into them as they drove home from dropping their son off at school. That night, Sasori came to live with me as I held back the tears threatening to overwhelm me. My son...my first son...the last living testament to Hitogama's existence was gone...Or, perhaps not. I would raise his, and my, grandchild to be a loving, kind boy. Just like his father before him and his grandfather before him. _

_And so I buried two more family members, what I couldn't be prepared for was what happened next. My son, my only living child broke his promise, just over a year after his brother's demise. A new girl had moved in across the street from them; Yondaime, Karura and the kids, and he had already laid his spell over her. They had an affair that lasted for months. Karura eventually found out in the most horrific way possible; she contracted syphilis from her husband. Upon discovering that her husband was, again, cheating on her, Karura sort of snapped, and who can blame her? She started taking sleeping pills and after a month she finally confronted Yondaime about it. He was drunk and told her that he wouldn't have to have affairs if she weren't so ugly and constantly pregnant. _

_I think that was the final straw for my daughter-in-law. No one insulted her children and got away with it. She called her brother and told him all about her husband's behaviour, leaving it to him to deal with. Then she took her youngest child away and tattooed the thing that she desired most onto his forehead. A few hours later, she was dead; over-dosed on sleeping pills. Yondaime, wrought with guilt and grief blamed the only person available to him; his youngest son. That was the worst thing my son has ever done; the thing that, above all else will ensure him great suffering some time down the line. Yashamaru attacked your father just before the first time he beat you. Your father fought him off but still Yashamaru came at him, eventually, although I have no idea how it came about, Yashamaru lay on the ground, dead. _

_I protected my son with my great influence only so that my grandchildren would have a father. I now wish I had just taken you in myself and let the murdering bastard rot in prison. But what's done is done and I can__‎'t change that. Yashamaru's death was reported as a suicide caused by the death of his sister. Yondaime got off. That was all there was to it and ever since that night, he has abused you and called you all the names that he felt he himself needed to be called. This letter is my testimony against my son. Please, Gaara, my lovely grandson, my self-loving carnage. Have the strength to hand this letter over to the right people. Bring justice to the world. Put your mother and her brother's souls at peace. As my last will and testament, I beseech you to put Yondaime away for abuse, for shooting his own brother and for killing the only person strong enough to stand up to him._

_I love you forever, no matter what. Please...the decision is yours...do what you must. _

_Yours most sincerely,_

_Best wishes and all the love the world has,_

_Grandma Chiyo, Devil's advocate. _

Gaara fell backwards onto his bed, at a complete loss for words.

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A/N:When I wrote this I actually had tears in my eyes when I was imagining little Hiroyuki so you people had better review and tell me how crap it is or I'll...I'll...-has no threats- I'll tell your mother! Hermione moment much? 


	17. Emotional Letterbombs 2 Reactions

A/N: OMG!!! I am so sorry that I haven't updated this in like months and that now that I have updated it's really short and really crappy! I can't believe how hard it was for me to right this chapter and even after all that time it came out weird. I think I should try to not write sad things anymore because it was really really really difficult this time. Oh well. Hope you enjoy the crap that I've managed.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or the song Away by Nightwish or anything else that is copyrighted. At all. Nothing. Zilch. Nada.

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Gaara could not believe all that he had just read. His father had...? He felt a churning in his stomach as he thought of all the things his father had done and the fact that he had just forgiven the murdering asshole. How could his father have done such things? It was beyond amoral. And what were all these strange connections to his friends he had found in the letter? Life was not that coincidental...was it? His mind teemed with unanswered questions and, above all, a terrible sadness. He was furious with his father, certainly, but his sorrow at all that the letter had revealed outweighed his anger.

The tragedy that had stalked his family for so long was still covered by deceit. Only he could inform the world of all that had happened and yet...and yet he wasn't sure if he was strong enough. It was much easier to forgive for Gaara than to prosecute. His father had done such terrible things but everyone could change, couldn't they? What was the point of ruining someone's existence for those gone? Gaara closed his eyes and Sasori's face swam into view. Perhaps that was the point. Sasori's existence had been ripped apart, although not by Gaara's father. He would have a much clearer insight than Gaara in this situation; Gaara would give the decision to him to make.

Gaara stood up from his bed where he had been lying since he finished reading the letter and walked over to where the once-occupants of his desk lay in a demeaning pile. He rummaged through the assortment of paper and books before pulling out a small scrap of note-paper. Inscribed on it was Sasori's name and a collection of numbers. Gaara took the phone number downstairs to the landline and dialled, for some reason holding his breath.

"Hello?" Sasori's voice answered quietly and Gaara exhaled loudly.

"Sasori? It's me, Gaara." Gaara responded in a forced casual voice.

"Gaara? How are you?" Sasori asked curiously. The two boys barely knew each other, after all so it was slightly surprising that Gaara should ring him.

"Uh...not so good actually. I have something I need to talk to you about. Can you come over?" Sasori agreed and Gaara gave him directions before sitting down to wait for the most desperate twenty minutes of his life. After what seemed to be an eternity, Gaara heard Sasori pull into the driveway and raced to the door, wrenching it open even before Sasori had had a chance to get out of his car.

Once Gaara had gotten Sasori seated inside, he handed him the letter without a word, motioning for the boy to read. Gaara watched as Sasori's face formed a frown and his eyes hungrily raced across the surface of the paper. When he had read the words, he sat back and raised a hand to his forehead. For several minutes neither of them spoke, too affected by the revelations to discuss them. Finally, Sasori broke the oppressive silence.

"So, what are you going to do?" He asked Gaara with a heavy sigh.

"I don't know," Gaara replied, falling back in his chair hopelessly. "What do you think I should do?"

Sasori's face was impassive as he weighed up the situation. It was several minutes before he spoke. "I think you should hand it in to the authorities. I don't like the idea of doing nothing and confronting your father is not a good idea." Gaara processed this. If he gave the information to the police they would most likely pass it off as nothing and would at the most confront Yondaime about it, with the probable attack on Gaara's person soon following. If he didn't do anything the guilt would eat away at him for the rest of his life until he went mad. Not promising either way. But perhaps there was one more option open to him. The letter said the right people, not necessarily the police. And who better to deal with a binding legal testimony than...

"Zabuza!" Gaara exclaimed when the car pulled into the driveway. It was several hours after Sasori had read the letter. Gaara had rallied about him all of his friends, even Sai and Neji who had escaped from his house using the laundry chute. (A/N: Remember this later for it shalt be important, my dear noodlefrogs!) Neji was holding onto the redhead, doing what he could to comfort his boyfriend and ease his own agitation simultaneously. Gaara hadn't let him read the letter. He had given it to Sasori but he couldn't trust his most important person with it?

"I'll let you read it later," Gaara suddenly breathed into Neji's ear, as if he had read his mind. "I just don't want everyone else to read it at the same time. Not yet anyway." Satisfied with this, Neji breathed more easily as Zabuza opened the front door. Haku led his brother into the kitchen for a moment to briefly explain the situation before Gaara silently handed him the letter. The moment was tense as all attention was focused upon Zabuza who was perusing the letter without obvious reaction. D'gani broke the heavy silence.

"Away, away, away in time,

Every dream's a journey away

Away, away to a home away from care,

Everywhere's just a journey away," D'gani sung sadly and the atmosphere of the room lightened slightly. Gaara, however, still tensely awaited Zabuza's response, a small part of him wishing that the letter would be useless.

"Well." Zabuza stated once he had finished reading the letter. Gaara couldn't make anything more of that word than what it was and so stared imploringly at Zabuza, requesting elaboration. "I think this will hold up in court. It counts as a testimony and can be used as evidence in a prosecution trial. Of course as this concerns a relative of mine, I shouldn't really take the case but, ironically that is one of the reasons I _will_ do it. I'm going to need to photocopy this for you though as the original will need to be taken in as evidence. Is that okay?" Zabuza asked in a surprisingly gentle voice. Gaara nodded blankly. Zabuza sighed and rubbed his eyes exhaustedly. "I'll start work on this tomorrow but don't worry Gaara; your father will be brought to justice. It's people like him that made me become a lawyer in the first place."

Gaara suddenly felt a great release. He had been unknowingly tied down by the words his grandmother had written and to have those binds relinquished was such a relief Gaara almost collapsed and would have fallen if he had been standing. If this was his reaction after just a few hours, imagine how terrible the guilt of doing nothing would have been. It was surely going to be alright. It had to be. All Gaara had to do was believe it would be, the rest was up to the world and Karma. Not that he believed in such things, which he deeply regretted, in a vague sort of way now. It was confusing, believing and not believing. Gaara decided it was best not to think about such things and just trust in Zabuza. More than anything right now, even more than his desire for justice was his need for Neji to comfort him.

Gaara shakily got up from where he was sitting and stumbled up the stairs to his bed as elegantly as he could manage in his current relief-induced inebriation. As he had hoped, Neji followed him and Gaara put on Once by Nightwish before leading Neji over to the bed and pulling him into a gentle embrace. Feeling those warm arms encircle his entire being was pure bliss for Gaara, but at the same time a terribly sad injustice. Here he was, alive, well and happy while little Hiroyuki was dead, completely erased from this world. Here he had a boy who loved him and whom he loved very much, while his mother had died tragically after having her heart ripped apart twice by her own 'lover'.

That was what it came down to. Love. Everything came back to that one word. Love. The force that drives the need to exist. Love. The purpose for protecting and being protected. Love. The one thing that Yondaime had never experienced in his entire life. Love. How bitter and sweet that thing is. Love. No matter how many times it is repeated. Love. No matter how many times you hear it. Love. It always warms you; it always provides you with inspiration. That's what everything comes down to. Love.

Neji kissed his lips gently, waking Gaara from his philosophical thoughts. "I love you, Gaara. More than anything. More than the moon, the stars, the sun. More than anyone. I love your smile, and your cute little frown. I love your smirk, I love it when you talk dirty. I love the feeling of being inside you and I love the taste of your mouth. I love your eyes, your lips, your neck and your hands. I love everything about you, Gaara, and I will love you forever," Neji whispered softly as tears poured silently down Gaara's cheeks. This moment here, shared only by the two of them while people died and lived in the world around them, was the most beautiful thing either could ask for.

"I love you too, Neji," Gaara replied and placed feathery kisses all over Neji's face. "But please don't make me repeat all that mushy stuff you just said." Neji laughed lightly at this. The sound of a low bell chiming gently against the pounding drum of his heart. Neji brought their lips together and Gaara opened his mouth, receiving Neji's loving touch gratefully and replying with his own carnal expressions. In this private world of love there was no embarrassment. There was no need to fear or worry. There was only pure and undiluted affection and that one word that has framed the world for many years: Love.

Gaara drifted gently into slumber and was aware of Neji leaving at some point during the evening but he understood that the boy had to get back before his uncle did something scary like rang Neji's cell phone. When Gaara awoke it was still fairly dark. He thought of just going back to sleep but this plan was quashed by his stomach informing him firmly that it was time to eat now or else he would start gnawing on his own organs and then Haku's diet would be ruined. How strange. Gaara could've sworn that stomachs couldn't speak but here his was ordering him about. He turned to ask his right foot if he was hallucinating or if stomachs could indeed converse with heads. His foot, it transpired was ignoring him and so he went back to sleep, ignoring the protests of his phonetically-powered stomach.

When Gaara awoke for the second time he heard voices and mildly wondered if his stomach was complaining again.

"He's got a fever..." A voice that belonged to something other than his stomach said from a long distance away.

"Is that you, stomach? Or have my other body-parts finally stopped ignoring me?" Gaara asked Haku who gently patted his arm reassuringly.

"And he's delirious. I think it's the stress of yesterday catching up with him," Haku informed whoever else happened to be in the room that Gaara couldn't see.

"With our powers combined we are...CAPTAIN PLANET!!!!" Gaara shouted pointing at the ceiling in triumph before turning back to Haku. "Would you like onion rings with that?" He asked seriously, feeling consciousness drift away from him.

"Yes," Haku replied before darkness engulfed Gaara's distorted vision that had most recently involved some slightly terrifying dancing raisins...

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A/N: Again I'm so sorry and you can feel free to bludgeon me with toasters in your reviews! By the way, the next chapter won't be as retarded as the end of this one. Think of this as a filler. Like the time Team 7 tried to see Kakashi's face. That was funny. 


	18. Zippadeedoodah Zippadeeday!

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A/N: Okay so here's the next chapter. It's weird and fluffy and happier than the other recent ones. It's kinda short which sucks but I don't want to force myself to write something that doesn't flow properly. Also, I won't have much time to write for the next two months until production is finished. (I foolishly landed myself with a principle role in the school's musical. Sorry) So enjoy the chapter!

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Gaara awoke to a soft lyrical voice calling his name

Gaara awoke to a soft lyrical voice calling his name. It was his kidneys, he was sure of it. His stomach had never sounded that sweet before.

"_Gaara. Gaaaaara. Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaara."_

Gaara opened his eyes to assess how visible his kidneys were. As he sat up, however, he noticed a small girl standing in the middle of his room, garbed in a long and frilly black dress. Her hair was that of a raven and her eyes, a glittering gentle green. "_Gaara_," she said again in her soft voice. "_Wake up, Gaara. We have work to do." _She stretched out a ghostly hand and Gaara found himself climbing out of his bed and clasping it in his own. Her skin was gloriously cool on his fevered skin and he was saddened when she let go and pointed to the door. "_Open it_," she commanded gently and Gaara obligingly turned the knob only to find it locked. "_Out the window then_."

Gaara nodded and unlatched the lock on the glass pane. The girl gracefully slid out in front of Gaara and silently fell to the ground. Gaara stared after her. No matter how delirious he was, he knew he would never be able to get down from this height unscathed. "Uh...I don't think I can..." he began but trailed off as the girl looked at him with her eyes that looked strangely similar to his own.

"_Come down, Gaara_," she called softly. "_You'll be fine. Trust in me_." Gaara nodded, took a deep breath and passed through the window frame. Miraculously, his body scaled down the wall of the house with feline precision. Gaara felt that he should be amazed, but there was no time for that; the little girl was already several metres ahead of him. The girl led the way through countless streets in a purposeful march towards their unknown destination. After a while, a question came to Gaara.

"What's your name?" he asked the girl as they walked down yet another unfamiliar street. She turned back to look at him with her wide, innocent eyes.

"_Hiroyuki_," she replied with a smile that could stop time. Gaara stopped and stared for a moment, his mouth open in surprise.

"Hiroyuki?" He asked thoughtfully. "That's a pretty name." Hiroyuki just laughed quietly and continued to lead them. After a few more minutes, they came to a stop outside a house that Gaara knew, without being told, was their 'work' that they had to do. After a few moments, shouting could be heard from the interior of the house, before the front door opened and a girl with buns on both sides of her head stormed out.

"Yeah? Well fuck you too! I can't deal with your bullshit right now!" Tenten yelled back at her house before slamming the door. She strode across her garden and was out of the gate before she noticed Gaara standing on the footpath. "What the hell are _you_ doing here?" she demanded sullenly.

"I'm here to talk," Gaara replied as though he had planned this all along. Tenten eyed him suspiciously.

"And what makes you think I want to talk to you?" She retorted, but it lacked her usual fervour. She just seemed sad and lonely right now, not the horrible bitch that Gaara had envisioned her to be, but rather a little girl with problems not so different to his own. "And why don't you have a shirt on?" She added, looking him up and down as she did so. Gaara looked down at himself and realised that she was right, his bare chest was proudly displayed to the world.

"I guess I forgot..." Gaara muttered to himself unconcernedly. Tenten stared at him.

"You forgot?" she demanded. "What kind of lame ass excuse is that? You're gonna get sick! Aren't you cold?" Gaara smiled at the tone of concern that Tenten couldn't quite hide with contempt.

"Not really. I think I have a fever. That's what Haku said when I told him about my stomach talking to me," Gaara replied absently, wondering why he had left his house.

"Are you a dumbass? Why the hell did you leave your house if you have a fever?! That's just stupid!" Tenten snorted with exasperation as Gaara shrugged. "Anyway, what do you wanna talk to me so bad about?" Gaara thought for a moment before he remembered.

"Well, I wanted to talk to you about your feelings towards Neji. All this time I've just assumed that you were a spoilt little bitch, but I realised I don't actually know you, so I'd like to get to know you. Then I'll know whether you're really a bitch or not. And I want to just talk to you. I've never had a proper conversation with you before, so, let's be friends!" Gaara explained thoughtlessly and Tenten's face turned from contempt, to anger, to amusement to surprise to a strange combination of all four.

"You're really weird," she stated after a while. Gaara just smiled at her and followed as she turned without a word and began to walk off down the street. Eventually, Tenten led the way to a nearby park and sat down on one of the benches lining the path that wound its way through the expanse of greenery. Gaara sat down next to her and for a long time there was just silence. Gaara felt he should say something as it had been his idea to talk.

"So, why aren't you in school today?" he asked the girl who crossed her arms and turned away from him.

"I didn't feel like going. I don't even know why I'm here talking with you; little Mr Perfect." Tenten replied moodily, still not looking at Gaara.

"Little Mr Perfect?" Gaara asked, confused. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"What do you think it means? It means that you are the little perfect asshole that stole Neji away from me, just for kicks!" Tenten spat back at him. Gaara was still confused.

"What are you saying? You weren't with Neji before I came here, were you?" he queried in surprise.

"No... Not like that. I know Neji's gay and that I have no chance of being with him in that way, but before you came here, he was my best friend. We always did everything together and he talked to me all the time. Even though he couldn't ever like me in the way I really wanted, we were still really close and that was enough!" Tenten turned to glare at Gaara, the first time she had looked at him since leaving her house. "Then you came along, out of nowhere, and in the blink of an eye, you took him away from me! All our friendship that was so important to me had just been shoved aside to make room for you!" Gaara stared in surprise. So that's how it was, he thought. Tenten wasn't just a jealous bitch; she was really a hurt little girl whose best friend had suddenly snubbed her. He would have to give Neji a good thumping for this.

"Oh...I didn't know you guys had been that close," Gaara responded lamely.

"Yeah, well, we were! And then Deidara suggested that we teach you a lesson and I agreed, but I didn't know that we'd end up hurting you so bad. Why the hell didn't you fight back?" Tenten had tears in her eyes by now and her words were coming out faster than before. "Then Neji seemed even more attached to you so I decided to try to break you guys up, I thought that he would forgive me. But after that he hated me and himself. I couldn't stand seeing him like that. It was worse than when he was happy with you. And now I can't even look him in the eye! Why the fuck did it turn out like this!? Isn't the girl supposed to win the boy's heart before the end credits? I just don't under-," Tenten stopped speaking abruptly as Gaara hugged her.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered in her ear as she was paralysed with shock. "I'm sorry that you don't get to be with the one you love and I'm sorry that I screwed up your happiness so much. But mostly, I'm sorry because I can't put your happiness before mine and Neji's. I can't give up Neji, even though you deserve him more. I'm just so sorry..." Gaara's eyes closed as he passed out, still leaning on Tenten.

"Hey?" Tenten shook the boy lightly. "Are you asleep or dead? You can't just drop an emotional bombshell like that and then just fall asleep!" Gaara continued his unconsciousness regardless of Tenten's reprimands. The girl sighed and pulled Gaara up, leaning him on her shoulder and half-carried, half-dragged him home. "You idiot, you really do have a fever," she muttered as she struggled to get the invalid to warmth and reasonable safety.

After an hour of strenuous work, Tenten and Gaara arrived at Haku's house. As soon as they reached the front door, it flew open and Haku lifted Gaara with surprising strength off of Tenten and carried him into the house. "What on earth happened?" Haku asked as Tenten hovered uncertainly in the doorway.

"I don't know," Tenten replied, stepping into the house and closing the door at a motion from Haku. "He just turned up outside my house and told me he wanted to talk. Then he passed out and I had to drag him back here. I don't even know how I knew the way; I've never been to your house before." Haku had set Gaara down on the couch and covered him with a blanket. Gaara opened one eye and looked over at the door where a little girl dressed in black had just disappeared from.

"It was Hiroyuki," Gaara informed them calmly. "I'll get better now I did what I was supposed to. I'm gonna sleep now. Tenten, stay here so we can talk some more." And with that, Gaara drifted off to sleep again while Haku and Tenten stared.

"Do I really have to stay here?" Tenten asked cautiously, eying Gaara suspiciously.

"Probably," Haku replied unconcernedly. "You can hang out with D'gani if you want. He's usually entertaining. Up the stairs and to the right." Haku walked out of the room and into the kitchen, humming softly to himself. Tenten, figuring she had no choice in the matter, followed Haku's directions to find herself face to face with a complete weirdo.

"Hey! You're Tenten, right?" D'gani smiled and held out his hand. "Thanks for bringing Gaara home for us. I was worried but at least he was safe. So, what do you wanna do?" Tenten stared at the boy blankly. Shouldn't he think she was a horrible bitch who tried to destroy his friend's relationship?

"Uh...you actually want to do something with me?" Tenten was slightly suspicious of this fact.

"Of course! Neji said you were actually really cool but you've been upset ever since Gaara came. You can't help your feelings so I can't hold what you did because of them against you." D'gani reassured her effortlessly. He didn't really dislike anyone so he found it very easy to get along with everyone. "So, what kind of music do you like?" Tenten actually smiled, because this boy wasn't judging her. He wasn't thinking that she was a horrible, pathetic bitch or a slut. He just wanted to know her a little better. This kind of person was just what she needed right now. This kind of person would be her salvation, so to speak.

Gaara awoke several hours later feeling completely healthy and normal. He heard some loud music coming from upstairs and so followed it to his room to find Tenten and D'gani singing along with the stereo which was blasting Marilyn Manson's Fight Song.

"I'm not a slave to a god that doesn't exist

And I'm not a slave to a world that doesn't give a shit.

Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!

Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!" D'gani and Tenten screamed in unison. Gaara was surprised to note that Tenten actually had a very good voice.

"Oh, hey, Gaara," D'gani said, noticing the other boy's presence and turning the music down so they could talk comfortably. "Did you know that Tenten has an awesome voice and likes really coolio music?" D'gani jittered like an excited child who just found an interesting new toy.

"Now I do," Gaara replied, giving the girl a friendly smile which she returned sheepishly.

"Gaara, I'm really sorry for being such a dick to you," Tenten said embarrassedly. "And you and your friends are actually pretty cool." Gaara grinned happily.

"I know," he laughed. "But I don't think either of us can handle this cheesy atmosphere for any longer, so let's just turn the music back up and stop talking." Tenten nodded and smiled while D'gani increased the volume back to deafening. It was going to be a lot easier now that Tenten wasn't trying to destroy their relationship. Maybe Gaara and Neji could finally be happy now that no one else was going to interfere with their love...Or maybe not. After all, danger is always lurking around the corner from a place that you least suspect. And that danger can't always be beaten by kind words and admirable camaraderie...

"Why the hell haven't you put a shirt on yet?!" Gaara and D'gani's laughter rang out through the house, bringing the release that only a new voice can bing...

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A/N: So that's the chapter! It's crap, right? Well, let me know by reviewing it! And I guess I'll see you guys in July sometime...


	19. The Restoration of Dreams

A/N: ZOMG! An update! Yes, my children, I have come to update the story for you. I feel like I'm getting a migraine so I''ll make this quick. I'm sorry I took so long. And I almost made Neji sing Boom boom boom boom by the Venga boys in this chapter. Laughing.

The next few days passed quickly for Gaara

The next few days passed quickly for Gaara. The past week had been so full of events and things to do; Gaara didn't know how he had managed to survive. First he had gotten back together with Neji, then his grandmother had died, then the letter and finally his reconciliation with Tenten. He was exhausted and was pleasantly surprised to find the weekend had rolled by once more. On Friday night, Neji brought up an advertisement he'd seen earlier that day.

"Yeah they've just opened," He stated as Gaara tuned into the conversation. "It's a karaoke diner and they're having a big themed night tomorrow. What do you guys reckon? Think it'd be fun?" There was a murmur of agreement and Gaara nodded into Neji's chest where his head currently lay.

"Do you know what the theme is?" Haku asked Neji who shook his head.

"No, it didn't say, but I'm sure it'll be fun, no matter what," he replied motioning with a carefree hand.

"Did you say karaoke? That's BRILLIANT! I'm inviting Sai!" D'gani declared loudly before scuttling out of the room to fetch his phone. Gaara snuggled further into his boyfriend's chest, completely content to stay there for the rest of the night. Maybe he would just sleep here now. It was so warm and strong and...

The front door slammed as Zabuza entered the house. Gaara sat up violently from his place on Neji. "Wassamatter?" He exclaimed sleepily. Neji chuckled and Haku giggled.

"You're so cute," Neji said appreciatively, pulling Gaara back down and inhaling his scent. Zabuza walked in the room, looking tired but happy.

"I've got enough evidence to charge your father with murder, assault and negligent parenting," He informed Gaara as he sat down in the only empty armchair in the room. "If you testify, I think we'll be able to put him away for a long time." Gaara sat up straight at this. Testify? Against his father? It sounded terrifying. How many people would be watching? Could he even manage to do it? Gaara was snapped out of his reverie by Neji's voice.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" He asked, staring at Gaara with concern in his eyes. "I mean, his father's a dangerous guy. What if he tries to hurt Gaara again?" There was a slight note of anger and desperation in the way he said Gaara's name.

"Even if he somehow managed to get anywhere near Gaara," Zabuza said in a calming voice. "He'd have us to deal with. It's not like any of us are going to let Gaara get hurt again, right?" Neji nodded with a determined expression.

"Right." Haku's voice joined Neji's in this as he too wore a firm face. Gaara smiled at his friends' expressions. That anyone would wear such a serious face just for him made him want to cry in happiness, but he swore that he wouldn't let anyone get hurt protecting him. He would face his father, alone if necessary.

"Guess what?" D'gani exclaimed, bursting into the room and breaking the tense moment. "The theme for the opening night is 'Dedication'! It means that you have to dedicate the song you're singing to someone in the audience!" Haku cooed happily and Neji gazed down at Gaara with a serene smile playing on his lips. Gaara thought it sounded like fun too, but was too tired to express his excitement. Instead he lay down on Neji's form, relishing in the warmth and gentleness of the other boy.

Saturday passed extremely quickly, the only thing Gaara really remembered about it was that he had kissed Neji and it had been better than ever before. The next thing that really registered in his mind was walking into the diner and being squeezed into a bench next to D'gani and opposite Neji. The diner was shaped like a giant microphone, having a large rounded stage at one end and tapering off in the opposite direction. Gaara and his friends were seated at the two tables closest to the stage on the right side of the room. A waitress came over and took their orders, smiling graciously at the males, especially at Sasuke and Itachi. Neji was looking rather uncomfortable sitting next to Sai, who was chattering away about male anatomy and psychology, effortlessly tying the two subjects together, as if they were very similar topics. After a short period of time, the diner began to fill up and it was as their food arrived that D'gani choked on his own saliva.

"Oh my god, do you see who just walked through the door?" He demanded of Gaara after he had recovered slightly. Gaara turned to see Nia and Rai sitting on the other side of the room, smiling and talking.

"What? What's wrong?" Neji asked, interrupting Sai's babble about the similarity between psychosis and prostate glands. Gaara indicated with his eyes and Neji looked right to see what Gaara was staring at. "Oh, that's crap." He managed after breathing deeply.

"Uh, what's wrong?" Sai asked confusedly. "Did you see a twelve-inch penis?" he asked excitedly. D'gani just smiled and shook his head amusedly.

"Don't worry, it's nothing," D'gani said, as much to Gaara and Neji as to Sai. "Oh look, they're starting the first song!" The boys' attention was now drawn to the stage as a spotlight surrounded a man with a microphone.

"Let me introduce our first performer; George, who's singing the song Hurt by Johnny Cash!" There was a round of applause as the man, George, took to the stage.

"I'd like to dedicate this song to all the friends I've lost over the years and all the memories we had together. Yeah," George stated in a surprisingly deep voice, considering his short stature of around five feet. Gaara had stiffened slightly at the name of the song. Why did _that_ have to be the first one? What were the odds of someone singing _that_ song on the night that Gaara happened to be there? Gaara breathed deeply, forcing himself to relax. He was being stupid, it was just a song. He could handle it.

"I hurt myself today  
To see if I still feel  
I focus on the pain  
The only thing that's real  
The needle tears a hole  
The old familiar sting  
Try to kill it all away  
But I remember everything," George's voice rang out clear and strong while the audience clapped enthusiastically and laughed. All of this passed Gaara unnoticed as he was finding it difficult to breathe. All of the memories of that night...the night when his mother had tattooed him and killed herself...all of those memories were flooding back in an incorrigible torrent.

"What have I become,  
my sweetest friend?  
Everyone I know  
goes away, in the end.  
You could have it all;  
my empire of dirt.  
I will let you down,  
I will make you hurt." His mother had him pinned down and tears were flowing down his cheeks. He couldn't breathe...the pain...the pain wouldn't stop. It was everywhere, in everything. Unable to escape, unable to make a sound, Gaara began to shake as the reality around him whirled and blurred.

"I wear this crown of thorns,  
upon my liar's chair.  
Full of broken thoughts  
I cannot repair.  
Beneath the stains of time,  
the feelings disappear.  
You are someone else,  
I am still right here" He couldn't get out, he couldn't stay still. He was in limbo. His heart was pounding so painfully fast...thump-thump...thump-thump...thump-thump... Gaara just wanted it to stop, to be still and set him free from this torment...thump-thump...thump-thump...thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump...It was beating faster and faster...it was going to explode! All he could hear was that thumping bass of his own heart as it tried to leap out of his chest. Thump-thump, thump-thumpthump-thumpthump-thumpthump-thumpthumpthumpthumpthumpTHUMPTHUMP!!

"Gaara! Breathe!" Gaara felt a hand hit his face lightly and opened his eyes to find the concerned faces of both D'gani and Haku in front of him. "Are you alright?" D'gani demanded and hugged him fiercely.

"Was it too hot in there?" Haku asked concernedly, placing a cool hand on Gaara's forehead. Gaara shook his head slowly and closing his eyes. How embarrassing! He'd lost consciousness over a song!

"It was the song, wasn't it?" D'gani asked Gaara quietly. The redhead nodded, hanging his head in shame. "Well, why didn't you just tell us if it bothered you that much? We could have just gone outside for that song. You don't need to hide your problems away from us, we're your friends." Gaara looked up at his two best friends before dropping his head once more.

"It's just a song. I didn't want to make a fuss," Gaara muttered embarrassedly. Haku crouched down next to Gaara, who was sitting on the pavement outside the diner.

"Next time you feel like something's gonna bother you to the point where you're physically ill, you have to make a fuss. I like to feel useful," Haku told Gaara gently with a radiant smile before straightening up. "Let's go back inside; Neji's got a surprise for you." Haku led the way back into the diner and over to their tables, where Sai was sitting by himself.

"Where's Neji?" Gaara asked, looking around.

"Just wait, you'll see," D'gani said with a smile. Gaara continued to glance around. He was slightly disappointed that Neji hadn't been concerned about him and had instead gone off to do something else. But Neji must be concerned about him...mustn't he?

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you our second performer, Neji Hyuuga!" Gaara's head snapped up as the audience applauded and the stage lit up to reveal Neji standing there holding a microphone.

"I'm dedicating this song to Gaara, who's the gorgeous redhead in the front row. He always gets so happy at this point in the movie, and I wanna see him smiling." Neji closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then sang:

"I wanna make you smile whenever you're sad,  
carry you around when your arthritis is bad.  
All I wanna do is grow old with you." Gaara was in shock. Never had he ever heard Neji sing before, yet here he was, sereneding Gaara with a surprisingly sweet voice. Neji was staring into Gaara's eyes and wandering closer across the stage towards him.

"I'll get your medicine when your tummy aches,  
build you a fire if the furnace breaks.  
Oh, it could be so nice, growing old with you." Neji had reached the edge of the stage by now and with one elegant jump, landed gracefully on the floor. He continued to wander in Gaara's direction.  
"I'll miss you.  
I'll kiss you,  
give you my coat when you are cold.  
I'll need you.  
I'll feed you,  
even let ya hold the remote control." Neji was directly in front of Gaara who had tears of joy running down his face, shining against his beaming face in the spotlight that had followed Neji.  
"So let me do the dishes in our kitchen sink,  
put you to bed when you've had too much to drink.  
I could be the man who grows old with you.  
I wanna grow old with you." Neji embraced Gaara at this and the two kissed pasionately; Neji pouring all his comfort and tenderness into his touch, while Gaara responded with every fibre of love and appreciation he had. The two broke apart as they were applauded, each quite perplexed by the reaction to their little display.

"Isn't that just the sweetest thing you've ever seen?" The announcer's voice said through the speakers.

"Almost sickeningly sweet," Rai's voice rang out clearly and all turned to look over at him. D'gani glared at him before vacating his seat, collecting the microphone from Neji and approaching the announcer, whom he spoke to briefly before climbing onto the stage.

"Now we have a young man named D'gani, who will be singing Emilie Autumn's I Want My Innocence Back!"

"I dedicate this performance to Rai, for what he's taken, and what he'll never have. Screw him," D'gani said before the lights dimmed, changing from golden to purple, orange to blue. He began to sing his slow mournful tune:

"I want my innocence back,

And if you can't give it to me,

I will cut you down,

And I will run you through,

With the dagger you sharpened

On my body and soul,

Before you slit me in two,

And then devoured me whole.

I want my innocence back

I want my innocence back

I want my innocence back

I want my innocence back

I want my innocence back

I want my innocence back

(I want my innocence back)" D'gani's voice was dark and full of anger and spite. His eyes were locked onto Rai's form, never straying, constantly expressing.

"I want my innocence back,

And if you can't pacify me,

I will break your bones

You think I'm bluffing, just try me (just try me).

I will never forget the words you used to ensnare me,

'Til my dying day,

You'll suffer for this, I swear (I swear).

I want my innocence back

I want my innocence back

I want my innocence back

(I want my innocence back)

I want my innocence back

I want my innocence back

I want my innocence back

(I want my innocence back)" Rai was looking quite horrified as the lyrics pressed upon his ears and D'gani's eyes bored into his own. Nia was just looking extremely uncomfortable.

"And I demand,

You put my heart back in my hand,

And wipe it clean

From the mess you made of me,

And I require,

You make me free from this desire,

And when you leave, I'd better be the innocent

I used to be.

I want my innocence back!

(I want my innocence back)

I want my innocence back!

(I want my innocence back)

I want my innocence back!

(I want my innocence back)

I want my innocence back!

(I want my innocence back)

(I want my innocence back)

(I want my innocence back)

(I want my innocence back)

(I want my innocence back)

(I want my innocence back)" D'gani had closed his eyes after the growling screaming of the penultimate chorus, but opened them to stare Rai down once more. The crowd clapped uncertainly as D'gani hopped off the stage and practically skipped to his chair. "I am so glad I got that off my chest!" He exclaimed upon sitting down. Gaara just shook his head in despair, while Sai gave D'gani the thumbs up.

"That was so sexy! You should sing that song to me sometime," He said, as if he were completely oblivious to the song's meaning.

"Maybe, if you ever piss me off enough," D'gani replied with a smile. Gaara turned his attention to the announcer who was once again speaking.

"Our next performer is a young girl who may not look like much, but is as fiery as the sun; Hinata Hyuuga! Singing Hell is For Children, by Pat Benatar, give it up for Hinata!" There was great applause and Gaara joined in, wondering if Neji had known that his cousin was going to sing. From the look on his face, Gaara supposed not. Hinata was now onstage with a blue spotlight upon her.

"I d-dedicate this s-song t-to Gaara-kun, for ob-obvious r-reasons," Hinata stated, with a fearful smile before taking a deep breath and beginning to sing:

"They cry in the dark, so you can't see their tears.  
They hide in the light, so you can't see their fears.  
Forgive and forget, all the while.  
Love and pain become one and the same,  
In the eyes of a wounded child.  
Because hell,  
Hell is for children.  
And you know that their little lives can become such a mess.  
Hell,  
Hell is for children.  
And you shouldnt have to pay for your love with your bones and your flesh!" Hinata sung powerfully, in a voice that was at least as strong as Sai's, perhaps nearly as strong as D'gani's. Gaara barely noticed. He was far too busy absorbing the lyrics and what they meant to him.  
"It's all so confusing, this brutal abusing.  
They blacken your eyes, and then apologize.  
You're daddys good girl, and dont tell mommy a thing.  
Be a good little boy, and you'll get a new toy,  
Tell grandma you fell off the swing.  
Because hell,  
Hell is for children.  
And you know that their little lives can become such a mess.  
Hell,  
Hell is for children.  
And you shouldnt have to pay for your love with your bones and your flesh!  
No, hell is for children!  
Hell,  
Hell is for hell!  
Hell is for hell!  
Hell is for children!  
Hell!  
Hell is for hell!  
Hell is for hell!  
Hell is for children!  
Hell!  
Hell is for hell!  
Hell is for hell!  
Hell is for children!  
Hell is for children!  
Hell is for children!" Hinata finished after having leapt and moshed her way around the stage to the remainder of the song. Gaara stared at the usually meek girl. Here she was, putting on a rock concert in a karaoke diner, when normally she could hardly speak without stuttering. When Hinata came off stage, Neji motioned her over to their table, and she walked over slightly cautiously.

"Wow, that was amazing!" Neji exclaimed as Hinata reached them. "I never knew you could sing so well! Wasn't she great, Gaara?" Neji turned to look at his boyfriend who was staring at Hinata with an indecipherable expression.

"Hinata…" Gaara began and stood up. Hinata was frozen to the spot and looked as if she thought Gaara meant to strike her. Instead he pulled her into an embrace. "You were so AWESOME!!" Gaara yelled, probably deafening the poor girl. Neji and all their friends burst into laughter at the look of absolute surprise on Hinata's face. Hinata eventually joined in and, as she had come alone, decided to join them at their table.

Over the next two hours, each of them took a turn to sing a song, whether it was Haku singing Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper, Naruto performing What's Up? by Four Non Blondes or Sasuke's rendition of With Teeth by Nine Inch Nails, fun and good times were had by all. By nine, Gaara was the only person yet to sing. "Come on, Gaara!" Neji begged while Gaara shook his head, smiling.

"I'm awful. I'll just ruin everyone's night," Gaara replied with a laugh. D'gani leaned over, focusing on their conversation.

"That's such a bad lie! You're awesome! Way better than me!" Gaara just snorted and ignored the comment.

"Now, we've had a lot of fun tonight, but it's over soon. The last official performance will be decided by you! Cast a nominee now and we'll vote!" Gaara stared in horror at the commentator and then at his friends who were grinning evilly.

"I think that Gaara should sing!" D'gani yelled out. "He's had two songs dedicated to him already, but he hasn't sung yet! Vote Gaara!" The announcer nodded and put it to the audience who all agreed Gaara should sing. The only person who seemed to not want Gaara to sing was Gaara. But he never backed down from a challenge.

"Fine!" He yelled over the cheering and chanting of his name. "You're peer-pressured me into it. But I'm not gonna sing a song I like, it'll be crap so that I can't ruin anything good. Now…a crap song…" Gaara announced, then walked up to the stage, collecting the microphone as he went. "I'll be singing…Ultimate by Lindsay Lohan! And I'll dedicate it to my Neji, of course." Gaara held the microphone close to his mouth as the music began and then started singing.

"You're the kind of friend who always bends when I'm broken  
Like remember when  
You took my heart and put it back together again  
I've been wasting time with clueless guys  
But now it's over  
Let me tell you why  
I'm through  
I've met someone new  
Who's just like you

You're it  
You're the ultimate  
It's automatic.  
I'm sure of it  
No lie  
So don't even try  
To tell me that you're not the guy  
Coz I've been waiting all my life  
For someone just like you  
But you're it  
You're the ultimate, you," Gaara sang and the crowd couldn't believe their ears. The boy on stage sounded exactly the same as the recorded original. It was a perfect imitation. Even the breathing matched.  
"You're the kind of guy whose hands and mind,

Send shivers up and down my spine.  
You took my heart and put it back together again.  
You're the kind of guy that blows my mind  
But now it's my turn  
You've been right in front of me  
Everything I need  
Why didn't I see?  
You're it,  
You're the ultimate.  
It's Automatic.  
I'm sure of it  
No lie  
So don't even try  
To tell me that you're not the guy  
Coz I've been waiting all my life  
For someone just like you  
But you're it  
You're the ultimate, you  
You're it  
You're the ultimate  
It's automatic  
I'm sure of it  
No lie  
So don't even try  
To tell me that you're not the guy  
Cuz I've been waiting all my life  
For someone just like you  
But you're it  
You're the ultimate, you  
You're it  
You're the ultimate, you..." The music finished and the applause for Gaara was deafening. The boy had just perfectly imitated Lindsay Lohan's voice after all, and we all know what an accomplishment that is. Gaara walked back over to their table, still experiencing the adrenaline rush of performing.

"That was incredible!" Neji said as Gaara sat down. Gaara just waved him off.

"No, I sounded horrible!" Gaara replied taking a sip from his drink.

"You sounded just like Lindsay Lohan!" Hinata piped up, smiling happily.

"Exactly," retorted Gaara. They all laughed at this, basking in the afterglow of such a wonderful evening. This is what friends are for, Gaara thought to himself contentedly as he snuggled into his bed that night. They're there to make life fun, without any care of embarrassment or fear. Just to have fun. Even though he would eventually have to confront his father and deal with the horrors of his past, Gaara currently didn't care. It is the most wonderful feeling, apathy, as long as it comes from your own happiness, your own security. That is when true contentment and satisfaction comes in. Gaara very much liked the feeling. He'd try to enjoy it more frequently. The restoration of dreams is a powerful thing…

* * *

A/N: So I hoped you liked it. I had fun writing it. Please review and make me happy. I love reviews! They make me smile v goodly. Harharharharhar! Love you all! Pan's Labyrinth is so FUCKING AWESOME!! BUY it! BUY IT NOW!! And I'm done. I'll talk more coherently next chapter. sleeps


	20. Like Aerated Water

A/N: My god! It's an update! I'll grant you that it's very short but it is indeed such a rarity these days! I'm really sorry that I haven't updated in ages! But I have had exams and lots of crap to do recently. And I had writer's block. And I'm far more interested in my other story Cathartik right now because I like that one more. Sorry.

Disclaimer: I own nothing whatsoever. The lyrics in here belong to their respective artists.

* * *

After the incident at the karaoke bar, Gaara was even more determined to bring his father to justice. Perhaps, he reasoned, if he could just make his father pay for his crimes, then he could banish any sense of guilt he still carried. Sometimes, even though he knew it was stupid, even infantile, he found himself somewhat resentful of his friends. They didn't have to wage a war on their own parents; they didn't still feel guilty for their mother's suicide; they didn't know what it was like to be abused, day after day, for the majority of their life. As petty as it was, Gaara felt misunderstood and hard done by. But at the same time, he felt truly pathetic and sad for being such an angsty teenager. The combination of these emotions was infuriating, and Gaara found himself becoming tenser and tenser every day.

The only person who could really relieve Gaara's built-up frustration was Neji. With a single embrace, he could have Gaara calm and compassionate once again. But when Neji wasn't around, he became distant, apathetic and scornful. It was beginning to grate on Haku's nerves.

"Gaara, if you're going to behave like a moody teenager, you may as well just go and sit up in your room. I really don't have the energy for it," Haku informed Gaara wearily after Gaara had made another comment about how annoying Naruto was being. Gaara turned to face Haku with a blank face.

"I'm sorry to be such a burden that you don't have the strength to deal with," Gaara replied bitterly. Haku muted the television and turned to face Gaara properly.

"Gaara, I know everything in your life is quite difficult right now, but don't you dare take it out on us," Haku's eyes were sharp and analytical, and it was as if the boy could see Gaara's every thought plastered on his face.

"You're right, I should go scream into a pillow, or go for a long run, right?" Gaara smiled quite unpleasantly at Haku, who stared coolly back.

"Oh, grow up," he snapped irritably. "You've been through a lot of shit in your life, but get over yourself. You're not the first person to feel misunderstood, in fact, every teenager feels that way at some point. I've been quite calm and reasonable about this whole business recently, because I know you're having some difficulties in life, but even I have my limits. Either start behaving like a mature adult, or I'll put you into a coma; it's your choice." Haku turned the volume back on the TV and turned away from the redhead. Gaara fumed at how he couldn't even reply now, as Haku had clearly ended the conversation. He settled for storming out of the room and slamming every door on the way up to his room.

Once there, Gaara grabbed his iPod and turned it on, looking for some sort of song to calm his nerves. How dare Haku say that bullshit to him?! He had no idea what Gaara was going through! Where did he get off pretending like he understood?! No one understood! Not Haku, not D'gani, not Zabuza, not even Neji! He was completely alone, with no help. Nothing and no one could even reach him. He was _alone_. And it was with these thoughts that Gaara began to cry. He cried silently, with no great wracking sobs or shaking. He merely curled into a ball, music blaring and tears falling as he tried desperately to release his pent up anger. The frustration of being unable to control his emotions; the anger at himself for being so pathetic; the almost painful desire to be warm towards his friends once again; the yearning for a cure, all of this came spilling down Gaara's cheeks.

After what seemed an eternity of hot tears streaking his face, Gaara finally stopped weeping and took note of the song that was playing on his iPod. It was I Know It's Over, originally by The Smiths, but this one the cover by Emilie Autumn. He truly felt the words for some reason. They were not especially relevant to his current situation, but he still connected to them deeply. When the song was about a third of the way through, Gaara felt someone lay on the bed next to him and then curve their body until it fit to his own foetal position. The familiar warmth and scent embalmed him in happiness as the other sang along with the song blasting Gaara's ears.

"It's so easy to laugh; it's so easy to hate,

It takes strength to be gentle and kind.

Over, over, over, over

It's so easy to laugh; it's so easy to hate,

It takes guts to be gentle and kind," Neji crooned softly as Gaara snuggled backwards into his comforting embrace. This was the place Gaara wanted to be right now; surrounded by his love; his life; his _Neji_. "I've heard you've been quite grumpy recently," Neji murmured after the song ended and Gaara's iPod had died from low battery. Gaara laughed at the summarisation of all his angst as grumpy.

"That's quite the euphemism in this situation," Gaara replied nonchalantly. Neji smiled against Gaara's neck where his face was nestled.

"I think the others might just agree with you on that," Neji concurred lightly. "I just don't get why I'm spared from this nasty Gaara. I've never seen, even for a moment, a side of you I didn't like. It makes me kind of jealous of the others; they get to see you like I never have." Gaara rolled his eyes. That was so like Neji to want Gaara to be mean to him, just so he could prove he loved every part of his redhead.

"Bloody masochist," Gaara responded gently. Neji chuckled and drew the other boy closer to him, placing a relaxing pressure over as much of Gaara as he could reach.

"But, in all seriousness," Neji continued soberly. "Can you explain to me what has you so upset? I need to know who to massacre." Gaara knew this was meant as a joke, but still it disturbed him just a little. Only because he knew Neji would massacre anyone for hurting him. Whilst terribly romantic, that idea was more that slightly ludicrous, let alone illegal.

"You can start with me," Gaara replied self-deprecatingly. Gaara felt Neji frown into his skin, but spoke again before his lover could protest. "I've been quite revolting the past week. I was self-involved, apathetic, sulky and scathing. I also have only washed my hair once in all that time, so it's starting to get greasy. And the reason for the former, and perhaps the latter, is that I feel weak. I feel weak and scared and helpless. I can't help but worry about the trial with my father, even though it won't go ahead for another two months. I still feel guilty about the fact that I couldn't stop my mother from killing herself, even though I know it's not really my fault. I feel alone and vulnerable and misunderstood. But most of all, I feel angry and frustrated with myself for being such a hormonal teenager."

"You're not weak," Neji said firmly. "You're one of the strongest people I've ever met and anyone who tries to say otherwise is an idiot, especially if it's you." Gaara grinned widely at this and felt Neji do the same.

"Gee, thanks," Gaara replied sarcastically. "I feel so much better now that I've been ruthlessly mocked by my boyfriend. I'm shocked at you, Neji. Shocked!" Neji snorted and Gaara felt a warmth pass between them that had nothing to do with how closely together they lay.

"Why'd you have to go and make things so complicated?" Neji asked with a sigh and mock severity. Gaara froze, paralysed by fear. "I see the way you're acting like you're somebody else gets me frustrated. Life's like this you, you fall and you crawl, and you break and you take what you get, and you turn it in to...Honestly, you promise me I'm never gonna find you faking. No, no, no." Gaara leapt away from his boyfriend as if he had been burned.

"Were you just singing Avril Lavigne?" Gaara demanded furiously. Neji laughed and sat up, resting on his hands and knees. Gaara had, by this point, backed himself away to cower in the corner of the bed by the window with the wall behind him. Neji slowly began to crawl towards Gaara.

"Hey, hey! You, you!" Neji whispered as he slowly made his way closer to his redhead. "I don't like your girlfriend! Hey, hey! You, you! I think you need a new one!" Neji stopped within reach of Gaara and leaned back on his heels, rocking his hips outrageously. " Hey, hey! You, you! I could be your girlfriend!" Neji pounced on Gaara who squealed and began to giggle uncontrollably as his boyfriend commenced to tickling him.

"Ah! No...Hahahahaha! Stop it! Nejiiiihehehehehehehe! Fwahahahahahahahaha!!!" Gaara, it transpired was incredibly ticklish. Neji, it transpired was a sadistic tickler. Thus an hour was lost, until Gaara couldn't move and Neji relented, satisfied with his efforts. The brunette pulled his lover on top of him and held him close, gently stroking his hair.

"It really is getting greasy," he said at length. Gaara laughed and playfully slapped Neji's chest.

"That's the second time you've mocked me. I'm starting to get an inferiority complex." Neji merely chuckled and squeezed his redhead closer. "What am I going to do? The only time I'm happy is when you're around, other times the pressure just builds hugely and I can't control it at all! I'm not even explaining things properly." Neji kissed the crown of Gaara's head warmly.

"Why don't you just think about what makes you happy? Whenever I get angsty about stuff, I think about you and listen to music. That always makes me feel better," Neji frowned in thought for a moment before continuing. "Then again, seeing as you have dealt with so much over the last few weeks, maybe the only solution for this problem is for me to be with you..._all_ the time." The last three words were whispered softly, yet resounded with hidden seductions. This was all the invitation Gaara needed; he fell upon Neji's lips hungrily;_ desperately_. Neji returned Gaara's need with his own passion, as they tore each other's clothes off and entwined their naked bodies together.

Their sex was slow, loving and soft. It was also desperate, passionate and lusty. And with Neji all around him, Gaara felt himself let go. He let go of the anger and resentment of his friends. He let go of the guilt that tore at his soul. He let go of all the weights in his life and just felt. He felt Neji inside him, around him and with him, full of love and carnal expression; one form desperately needing; the other willingly providing. This time, no tears fell. This time, he expelled his angst and pain through a much louder method. Gaara laughed. He laughed and laughed and laughed until all of his apathy, scorn and frustration just flew out the window, leaving serenity, compassion and love in its place.

"So, feeling better, are we?" Neji enquired as they lay naked together on the bed, exhausted but content.

"Much, thank you. I think I owe some people an apology...but I really don't want to move," Neji gently stroked his lover's cheek and smiled.

"You don't have to, my love. You're not alone, and we're not going anywhere. You can stay as long as you want." And with those comforting words, the two fell into a well-earned slumber.

Later that night, D'gani was forced to sleep on the couch downstairs as no one was quite sure if the two lovebirds were decent or not. Naruto had gone to check, but had returned blushing furiously and muttering about an invasion of his innocent vision. Nobody was quite brave enough after that to ask Neji to leave. Or at least put some clothes on. What a pervert.

* * *

A/N: I think I need to work a little on my ending of chapters. But oh well. Hopefully i'll be able to write more soon, for anyone who cares.


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